Research Initiation Award: Implementing the Next-Generation IoT Ecosystem with AI Capabilities

历史上的黑人学院和大学本科项目（HBCU-UP）通过研究启动奖为历史上的黑人学院和大学的初级和中期职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新指导和重建现有的研究项目。期望该奖项有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和效率，并改善本国机构的研究和教学。该奖项授予Prairie View A &amp； M大学，支持教师和学生的研究，通过集成人工智能（AI）来重新设计和推进创新物联网（IoT）生态系统的架构，以增强其处理复杂现实世界场景的能力和有效性。该项目将进行基础研究，以实现智能传感生态系统架构的创造性设计和实施。具体而言，该项目将研究物联网生态系统的关键属性，并开发具有人工智能功能的运行时环境和传感平台，以更好地收集、传输、聚合和分析每天生成的大量传感器数据。该项目需要解决三个主要挑战：(1)理解和代表物联网生态系统的基本机制；(2)通过使用一个统一的平台来提高这些系统的可编程性和部署能力，该平台可以针对一系列不同的传感器进行快速扩展和定制；(3)收集和分析远程部署的不同传感器的传感器数据，根据分析/观测数据进行自动化人工智能决策。该项目将为Prairie View A &amp； M大学的STEM学生创造参与研究的新机会，为他们提供跨学科知识，从而提高他们在STEM劳动力中的竞争力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) through Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness and improve research and teaching at the home institution. This award to Prairie View A & M University supports faculty and student research to re-design and advance the architectures of innovative Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance their capabilities and effectiveness in dealing with complex real-world scenarios. This project will perform fundamental research to enable the creative design and implementation of intelligent sensing ecosystem architectures. Specifically, this project will examine key properties of IoT ecosystems, and develop a runtime environment and sensing platform with AI capabilities to better collect, transfer, aggregate and analyze the tremendous amount of sensor data generated daily. There are three main challenges to be addressed by this project: (1) Understanding and representing the fundamental mechanisms underlying IoT ecosystems; (2) Enhancing the programmability and deployment of such systems by using a unified platform that can be rapidly extended and customized for a range of different sensors; and (3) Collecting and analyzing sensor data from different sensors deployed remotely for automated AI-enabled decision-making based on analyzed/observed data. This project will create new opportunities for STEM students at Prairie View A & M University to engage in research, equipping them with interdisciplinary knowledge, thereby enhancing their competitiveness for the STEM workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.