Departmental Colloquium
Robert Ghrist
UIUC
Algebraic Topological Tools for Sensor Networks
Abstract: As sensor engineering and manufacturing evolve
to produce smaller devices, we will face the problem of dealing
with large collections of local networked devices for communication,
security, and surveillance. Engineers increasingly need to solve
global problems with swarms of local sensors.
Topologists solved a similar problem nearly a century ago, using
only combinatorial data from local objects (simplices) to derive
global data (homology). Unfortunately, homological algebra has
not been very successful in crossing over to engineering. This
talk will demonstrate the surprising effectiveness of algebraic
topology as a toolbox for working with sensor networks having
neither localization capabilities nor probabilistic guarantees.
Friday March 3, 2006 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636