This is the official blog for Harvard CS263, Wireless Sensor Networks, a graduate seminar being held in Spring 2009. Click here for the official website for the course. We'll be using this blog as the place to post notes and musings on the papers discussed in the class, as well as for students (and anyone else) to post comments on those discussions.
What is this course all about? Well, we're going to take a tour through some of the best and most influential papers in sensor networking, spanning the last 8 years or so (well, it's a young field). Mostly I want to emphasize how WSNs raise some fundamentally new research challenges in terms of networking, OS design, distributed algorithms, and programming models. We'll also talk extensively about real world applications of sensor nets, from sniper localization to monitoring redwoods, and try to nail down the practical value of some of the more lofty systems research ideas.
The key to this course is going to be discussion on the papers -- this year I am not going to lecture, or even stand at the whiteboard, since that sets the wrong tone. I want everyone to get engaged, which means I'll be limiting enrollment and disallowing laptops in class (imagine!). And this blog is going to be used as a place to capture our discussions, giving them some persistence, and proving a forum for everyone to comment.
(So, let me apologize in advance if you are a coauthor of one of the papers on our syllabus and don't like something that's said about your paper. Just keep in mind that you're on the reading list because I think the paper is really good and worth discussing!)
Really looking forward to the class starting on Jan 29th. If you're so inclined, come join us at 2:30pm in Maxwell Dworkin 221.
Wireless Sensor Networks - Spring 2009
