Welcome to Coventry University website

Team: Tessa Daniel, Dr Elena Gaura

This project aims to deploy a wireless sensor network for monitoring environmental conditions in the public spaces of the new Coventry University Engineering building. In order to produce instrumentation which can be successfully deployed and embedded into the new building structure at construction time, some development work is needed in the form of a pilot project. The pilot deployment will consist of 6 wireless nodes with sensors on board for measuring temperature, humidity, light, CO2 and detecting occupancy. This multi-sensor data will be used for identifying temperature hot and cold spots, high and low moisture areas and assessing the general comfort level of the building occupants. An important aspect of the project is to deliver the data being collected in an interesting as well as informative manner for users who interact with the system. The user-end, desktop interface will allow a user to access the state of the building 'at a glance'.

Although WSNs have always been seen as a rich area for academic research, with rising energy costs, many commercial organisations and academic institutions now view such systems as possible avenues through which better energy management, cost control and safety improvements can be accomplished.

This project therefore has a number of objectives:

• to monitor the internal environment of the building, thereby providing practical information that can be used to improve environmental quality.
• to provide a showcase of the work being done at the University, as well as an interesting display for visitors, staff and students who access the building. This is the main motivator and the pilot will seek to find best ways of delivering scientific information to public, student and academics.
• to give academic value while serving as a fixed experimental research platform for a variety of studies and undergraduate and postgraduate student projects in future years, and ultimately, potentially,
• to allow cost savings through improved energy efficiency and reduced labour cost.