Fostering New Transdisciplinary Research Partnerships
		Offering Great Potential for Other Disciplines The new technologies under development in the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) can be tailored to a very broad number of disciplines. This flexibility, as well as the universally high quality of UCLA’s educational and research programs across campus, has made CENS a hotbed of rich collaborative research. Film and Stage One such partnership with the UCLA Hypermedia Studio is leading to an embedded networked sensors system for use in film and theater productions. The collaboration with filmmakers will create a sensor network that will track and record prop locations, lighting and other elements, saving producers time and money, while providing increased flexibility and additional creative options. Education Embedded sensor systems also have applications in educational settings. A sensor-equipped classroom will help educators discover more effectively how different types of young children learn, resulting in strengthened curriculums and better trained teachers. Medicine Wireless sensors can also be used to help physicians monitor their patients’ health from remote locations. Rather than relying on individual patients to report medical problems as they become aware of them, wearable sensor networks would automatically track and report changes to a patient’s health. Space Exploration Working with earth and space scientists, CENS is creating tools for exploration of remote locations and harsh environments in outer space. Information gathered by these systems will help scientists better understand the conditions on other planets in our solar system. As more researchers become aware of the potential benefits CENS holds for their work, additional partnerships are certain to develop. The new systems that will emerge from these collaborations will help us learn more about our world, our impact on it and new conservation and management solutions.