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Pallidium Times Oswego NY
12-14-15
SUNY Oswego students test tech abroad
By SETH WALLACE swallace@palltimes.com | Posted: Monday, December 14, 2015
OSWEGO An innovative SUNY Oswego program is sending computer science
students around the globe to test homegrown technology, made possible by the
work of a passionate professor and the generosity of a corporate benefactor.
Dr. James Early of SUNY Oswego's computer science department had a vision
for a student experience blending developmental programming and engineering
with real-world perspective.
"Technology is working best when it gives us a understanding of our impact
on the world," said Early, whose 15 students worked together to craft
pocket-sized air sensors with the capacity to stream real-time data and log
the information in a collective database.
"We're giving students context to the development of these machines," Early
said. "They're solving problems with circuitry and interfaces, and the
challenges of collecting useful data." The year-long program starts, as
computer science concepts do, in the laboratory. SUNY Oswego's Shine-man
Center for Science is the incubator for a vast array of emerging research
efforts, and inside its walls Early and his pupils started a journey taking
them across the Atlantic Ocean.
Once initial fabrication of the sensors was completed, the program turned
its sights to engaging students in hands-on field work.
Disembarking in London, England, the group toured several drastically
different air environments with their individual, hand-crafted sensor units
silently drinking information and compiling it via a dedicated Smart-Phone
application. Carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity, particulate matter
all are grabbed from thin air.
Using open-source programming, which can be accessed and modified by any
user with an idea and the know-how, ge-olocation technology lets students
share collaborative data.
"We're providing data free of charge for anyone interested," said Early.
Early said part of the appeal and operational nature of the program was the
dynamic aspect of mobile technology, with each new year presenting new
challenges and opportunities.

Student Anne Reynolds said the skills she learned would "stick with me for
my entire lifetime." Reynolds said one of the challenges of working in
Europe was that phone service was difficult to find.
"For example, while in the subway or even at Windsor Castle, the Bluetooth
connection that we used to read data into our devices (the sensor
technology) was temperamental," she said in an email.
To compensate, the group would go elsewhere to find wireless access, said
Reynolds.
From the beginning, Early was faced with a harsh reality of component
manufacturing and development the cost of materials. While processors,
chips and cases aren't relatively expensive most can be purchased from
local vendors they're not free, either. That's where AT& T came in.
"We feel it's necessary to stay involved with local innovation," said
company spokesman Ben Roberts. "This is far-reaching, applied technology. We
want to support young minds and if you give them a stage to perform, they'll
consistently exceed expectations." AT& T partners with institutions of
higher learning across the nation, according to Roberts, including SUNY
Albany and Buffalo, among dozens others. The mobile technology aspect of
this program was something "easy to get behind right away," he said.
With fiscal backing by the telecom giant, Early was able to avoid having to
charge students out of their own pockets for the parts necessary to
construct the sensors and also ease the burden of international airfare.
"They were instrumental in getting the resources we needed," said Early, who
noted many of the participants in the London trip were traveling out of the
county and some on an airplane for the first time.
With a successful first year in the books, Early and the program chose Paris
as their next destination to continue their work. The terrorist attacks of
Nov. 13, in which gunmen attacked several Paris locations and killed more
than 100 people, produced a "chilling effect" on the plans, according to
Early.
"This is where you can see the impact of science contextually," said Early.
"We're not going to live in fear. We're not going to stop collecting our
data and doing our work."