CSIR experts join peers to discuss latest developments in sensor web enablement

Exploring ways to keep a finger on the pulse of our environment is one of the goals of the second South African International Workshop on Sensor Web Enablement taking place in Cape Town from 5 to 7 February 2007. CSIR experts will join local and international delegates at this event, which is organised by the Meraka Institute and its various partners, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); the Geo-Information Society of South Africa (GISSA) ; the University of Cape Town ; the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE) and the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) . The event is hosted by the Sensor Web Alliance .

The workshop is the inspiration of Andrew Terhorst, Research Group Leader: ICT for Earth Observation and his staff at the Meraka Institute (a national research centre managed by the CSIR); Terhorst was responsible for the organisation of the first South African International Workshop on Sensor Web Enablement held in Pretoria in March 2005. He says, “The workshop is a forum that brings together researchers from academia and industry to discuss the latest developments in sensor networking and to share ideas on how best to tackle questions arising from this research.” CSIR staff from different units and centres will be present at the various discussions focusing on sensor webs and semantics, sensor webs and mainstream IT, sensor webs and metadata, and sensor webs and agent-based technologies.

Explaining the context in which the event takes place, Terhorst notes, “System-level science is about the integration of diverse sources of knowledge about the constituent parts of a complex system with the goal of obtaining an understanding of the system’s properties as a whole.

“The study and creation of the infrastructure required to enable system-level science is becoming increasingly important, spawning new knowledge in a variety of fields at a rapid pace. An example of this is the Sensor Web, an advanced spatial data infrastructure in which different sensors and sensor networks are combined to create a macro-instrument with massive sensing capability.” Terhorst adds that much progress has been made developing standards for sensor networking and sensor interoperability. However, he highlights the growing need to develop intelligent middleware to deal with the anticipated flood of very diverse sensor information and facilitate situational awareness.

The Meraka Institute is exploring how adaptive middleware could be employed to filter sensor observations intelligently, fuse information from diverse sensors, and deliver meaningful information products to end users and/or applications. The use case is the Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS) Developing adaptive middleware for the Sensor Web is a mammoth task that requires inputs from multiple researchers across many disciplines. This workshop is not only about addressing the technical aspects of Sensor Web Enablement, but is also about building a vibrant community of practice in sensor engineering, sensor science and sensor informatics. To this end, the Meraka Institute is championing the Sensor Web Alliance, a global research community committed to Sensor Web Enablement. The alliance offers many benefits - access to other researchers, sharing of intellectual property (e.g. software and ontologies), collaboration on research projects, and access to funding opportunities. The aims are to minimise unnecessary duplication of effort, build critical research mass in Sensor Web Enablement, work off a set of common reference architectures and promote re-use of software components. Alliance members include the Meraka Institute, Mississippi State University, TNO Netherlands, University of Muenster, University of KwaZulu-Natal and 52°North. Membership of the alliance is open to all bona fide researchers.

On February 7 2007, delegates gather for a side-meeting of the Group on Earth Observations Sensor Web Enablement Task Team. This is the outcome of a work plan put forward by Terhorst at the Third Plenary Session of the GEO, which took place in Bonn, Germany from 28 - 29 November 2006.

News supplied by: Biffy van Rooyen