After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the National Science Foundation began accepting proposals for small-scale, exploratory, high-risk research. The idea was to support novel projects whose results could help the nation better "mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic events."

Jagannathan Sarangapani, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UMR, received one of these grants to create a new, truly mobile communication system. The system uses a network of tiny, wireless devices and a dynamic programming-based protocol to provide first responders with the communication tools they need to plan a coordinated, effective response.

The devices, called motes, are installed with wireless communications and use sensors to detect a myriad of variables from the environment. Developed to be deployed on emergency vehicles, the motes then pass this limited information to other nearby UMR motes in a high-tech version of a children’s telephone game, except the original and final messages are identical.

More about the project here.