Introducing networking and distributed systems concepts in an undergraduate-accessible wireless sensor networks course

  • Authors:

  • Sami Rollins

  • Affiliations:

  • University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

The field of wireless sensor networks is growing rapidly and there is increasing interest in providing students with a foundation in the area. Curriculum in the field, however, is fairly limited and most courses reach only advanced graduate students. Undergraduate students typically lack the background, for example in distributed systems and networking, to digest the topics and assignments of a standard wireless sensor networks course. In this work, we present our approach to teaching wireless sensor networks to undergraduates and introductory graduate students. We discuss a unique, integrated approach to introducing relevant distributed systems and networking concepts in the context of wireless sensor networking applications. The course provides students who have never previously implemented a networked application with the necessary background to implement sensing applications on the Java SunSPOT sensor. It also provides a structured introduction to prerequisite concepts, such as distributed coordination algorithms, so that students can read and understand research papers. Our experience suggests that there is ample opportunity to expand curricula in sensor networking and reach a broader population of students.