Deborah Estrin, UCLA professor of computer science, has been named to Popular Science magazine’s second annual “Brilliant 10,� a list of young scientists doing extraordinary work. The September issue of the magazine highlights Estrin’s work in the emerging discipline of embedded networks. The magazine says its list names those scientists who are absolutely absorbed in their work, “someone in the grip of an obsessive inquiry in the nature of the world — brainy, resourceful, gutsy — and not afraid to talk about it.�

Estrin’s work on embedded networked sensing systems (ENS) is helping researchers to connect the physical world just as the Internet has connected the world of computers. She uses tiny devices that can be densely distributed within a natural or man-made environment to monitor and collect information on such diverse subjects as plankton colonies, endangered species, contaminants in soil and air, airplane wings, artificial structures such as buildings, and even physiological information about medical patients.

Estrin is the director of the UCLA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a new $40 million research center located at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

According to Estrin, ENS systems are ushering in the next generation of the Internet. “Moving from the Internet, where there are tens of thousands of distributed devices networking, we will be building tens of thousands of systems, each of which is composed of thousands, or tens of thousands, of components. There will be many applications to emerge from embedded network sensing technology.�

In the Popular Science profile, Estrin, 43, says she envisions a future in which our surroundings will constantly take their own measure and report back. Bridges with sensors in their foundations will monitor their own structural health and detect the first tremors of an earthquake. Smart bandages will assess a patient’s medical condition. Dairy or wine manufacturers will be able to track the location and condition (including temperature) of shipments.

Popular Science continues: “The building blocks of ENS are microprocessors the size of Matchbox cars that can be connected to a range of sensing devices — infrared cameras, acoustic and chemical sensors, motion detectors. The resultant devices are then scattered over a broad area to monitor the subtlest of changes. Data leapfrogs between processors, then streams to a central server. The biggest challenge for Estrin, a computer scientist, is managing the flood of
information these networks will produce. She is devising algorithms that will enable the microprocessors to compress data, or to eliminate duplications before information is transmitted. She is also creating programs that will ensure data is transmitted only when it falls outside an established range — when, say, a leaf is wetter or the air warmer than expected.�

In February 2003, MIT Technology Review magazine identified Estrin’s work in wireless sensor networks as one of 10 emerging technologies that will change the world. She is also a winner of the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award for her research in network security.