The word “iteration” is used a lot in certain fields like computer science, mathematics and music, where a repetition of steps is often necessary. An iteration is often a new or different version of something. Whether you’re already familiar with this word or not, you know about it in a basic human sense. Take for example the phrases, “A second chance”, “Learn from your mistakes”, and “There’s no substitute for experience”. These all speak to the truth of what new iterations can bring. But before new iterations can come, there has to be a first time. This summer at Sensorpedia there were several first iterations going on. Several of them were first times for me, and some of them were first times for Sensorpedia.

What kind of first times? For me, it was my first time interning in a major research environment. Also, the new addSensor application that I developed underwent its first iteration (although Chris Tomkins-Tinch first created an early predecessor to it). Sensorpedia’s first times included reaching new registered sensor milestones, advancing its main web application, and collaborating with its first group of private beta testers.

The important part about having finally done something for the first time is realizing what the next iteration can hold. The leaders of Sensorpedia are figuring out ways to formalize existing technologies to create a powerful web 2.0 site for sensor data and other types of information sharing. Now having many of their first iterations underway, their position reminds me of an event that occurred a little more than one hundred years ago.

It was the year 1900 when two brothers from Ohio left their bicycle shop and headed to the breezy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They were thought to be crazy for their belief that controlled, powered flight was possible- but even crazier for going to actually do it. Wilbur and Orville Wright’s first iteration of their “flying machine” that autumn was with a glider. Flying only as a kite not far above the ground, Wilbur rode the glider while testing wing-warping and other control techniques. This led to follow up iterations in the summer of 1901 and the fall of 1902. Through persistent experimentation with their gliders, they discovered that only three keys existed to controlled flight: pitch, roll, and yaw (the three axes). Armed with that important discovery, the Wright brothers set out the following year on their next iteration. It was then that they added another element to their flying machine- a single speed aluminum-cast motor. They paired the motor with a new kind of propeller (inspired by what they had seen on ships) to create the means to power the plane. Then on December 17, 1903, the brothers successfully flew their new machine four times.

Those first controlled, powered flights weren’t much by today’s standards. The longest of those four flights that day was a mere 852 feet- and if we were witnesses that day we might have said that “controlled” was stretching it. But after that day, it took less than 66 years to put men on the moon and return them safely. It all started with Wright brothers’ first iteration flying machine.

Like the Wright brothers before us, we now look toward the next iterations of Sensorpedia’s projects. What can we learn from this summer’s first iterations?

This summer I worked on creating an iPhone application for Sensorpedia. The goal of the project was to develop a software application that can be run on a mobile computing device and used to transmit distributed data readings from citizens and first responders in near-real time. This application will permit citizens to rapidly report event information, such as disaster occurrences, security anomalies, and accounts of emergencies. It will allow field users to contribute to Sensorpedia. It is currently in transition from the simulator to the hardware. Here is a presentation on the application (view full screen to see the presenter text):

Here is the poster I presented about it to the 2009 ORNL summer student poster session on August 5, 2009:

Thank you to David Resseguie for all of your help and ever-willing guidance, Bryan Gorman and the rest of CSED for being a great division to work with, ORNL and ORISE for allowing me to come back and live among the other summer students, and thank you to those funding Sensorpedia for making this sort of summer educational program possible. It has been a great summer; I am glad to have learned a host of new technical skills and am happy that I had the opportunity to put them to use for Sensorpedia.

Well, it’s around the beginning of August and it’s time to head out back to our universities and hometowns. First of all, I’ve got to say that I’ve had a blast working and learning with these guys at ORNL! I started this internship with knowledge in C++ alone and as a result ended with skills in HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and AJAX.

Throughout the summer, I have registered Tennessee Department of Transportation traffic cameras and United States Geographic Survey river level sensors to Sensorpedia. I’ve also completed the basic operations of my third party application entitled Sensorpedia H2O! I have learned a lot of programming techniques and also got hands-on  experience in the work industry which is priceless.

So, in all, I loved my experience at ORNL with the Sensorpedia team and I’m really going to miss all the guys! And it’s a wrap! –Brandon Rives
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It’s August, and the time of interns at Sensorpedia for the summer is coming to an end.  This internship has been a fantastic experience in every possible way, and has helped me develop professionally and technically, to say nothing of the immense and invaluable knowledge of presentation and communication techniques that David has imparted on us.  My sincerest thanks go out to all who have funded us and made this summer possible.

The Sensorpedia Python Library

But let’s talk about Sensorpedia, shall we?  This summer, I’ve focused mainly on the Python library, which while far from really being complete, is now stable and creating feeds.  The Python library provides a “Pythonic” frontend to Sensorpedia, such that registration feeds that are large or that need to be dynamically generated can be generated with a more intuitive and simple programming interface, without having to know anything at all about ATOM or XML.  The library is already being used in several projects and sensor feeds:

• Brandon Zachary’s air quality sensors from the EPA
• Chris Tomkins-Tinch’s iPhone app ("We too are sensors.")
• A feed generated by Chris from Harvard’s Citysense
• ~2000 ICAO weather sensors (updated with current data readings once every hour)
• Several hundred NOAA buoy sensors located offshore of various American coastlines

Feedback from some of these feeds and projects is already helping me decide what the next iteration of the library will look like.  We’re hoping to open source the library and other parts of Sensorpedia such that  people not necessarily associated with the lab can contribute as their interests dictate.  I’m hoping that in the future, regardless of my affiliation with the lab, I’ll be able to continue contributing to this library as a personal project in conjunction with some of my related projects.

As of this writing, the current version of the library is 0.2.3.  You’ll note that we’re nowhere near 1.0 yet, and this is to indicate that the library, as with the rest of Sensorpedia, is still very much in progress.  The interface can (and probably will) change quite a bit as the development cycle renews itself.  That being said, I consider the library to be very stable under normal operation, and would put it forward as a painless way to generate Sensorpedia registration feeds programmatically.

The current version of the library can be found here.

I’ve enjoyed my summer here working along with the Sensorpedia project. I’ve been able to contribute a lot to a project that I feel will be a beneficial project in the future to come. Also, pretty happy to see that we have reached a milestone with the sensor count at over 3000 sensors. I hope to be able to keep contributing fresh ideas to support to David, Bryan, and the rest of Sensorpedia.

Thanks for a Great Summer