Environmental Sensing and Monitoring Focus

Why Study Environmental Sensing and Monitoring (ESM) at Portland State University?

Most of the leading institutions working in environmental sensing are focused on the environmental, oceanographic, and atmospheric sciences. However, there is a strong movement within environmental sensing towards deployment of large numbers of sensors (and collecting large amounts of data), lowering the cost of sensors (necessary for deploying large numbers), reducing the size of sensors, consuming lower power and performing autonomous (on-board) signal processing and efficient data transmission. These trends are partly driven by advances in big data analytics but also by the increasing availability of unmanned platforms. Both massive sensor deployments and using aerial and underwater unmanned platforms (drones) provide new ways to sense but also place severe restrictions on size, power and communication data rates. The areas of sensor system development, on-board signal processing, controls, communications, and power are all core to Electrical Engineering. At Portland State, we focus on the Electrical Engineering challenges associated with the future of environmental sensing and monitoring.

Northwest Electromagnetics and Acoustics Research Laboratory (NEAR-Lab)

Modeling and analysis of electromagnetic and acoustic wave phenomenon for development of advanced signal processing techniques. The understanding of wave scattering provides a basis to devise and evaluate advanced signal processing algorithms for applications such as radar, sonar, and biomedical imaging.

NEAR Lab Website

Trillium Laboratory

The Lipor Lab focus is on the design and analysis of machine learning algorithms, with an emphasis on adaptive and sequential methods aimed at solving problems in environmental sensing. Applications range from air and water pollution monitoring to geothermal energy prospecting.

Dr. Lipor's Website

Current Team

David Burnett, PhD

Assistant Professor - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Burnett joined Portland State in 2020 as part of the Environmental Sensing and Monitoring focus leveraging his background in integrated circuit design and environmental sensing. During his Ph.D. at Berkeley he was...

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John Lipor, PhD

Assistant Professor - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Professor Lipor's research focuses on active and adaptive methods in machine learning, with an emphasis on applications in environmental sensing and monitoring. One area of his research is focused on low-dimensional...

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Martin Siderius, PhD

Professor - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Professor Siderius' research combines physics and signal processing to improve the techniques used to gather information about the ocean. Most ocean remote sensing and communications methods rely on acoustic signals...

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ESM Focus Area

Major Societal Challenges

Major societal challenges impact the direction of environmental sensing and monitoring. Engineering responses to these challenges point towards potential Research & Education (R&E) opportunities.

Ocean health
Estimating marine life abundance
Tracking terrestrial wildlife
Underwater exploration & mapping
Efficient agriculture
Clean water access/pollution

Research & Education Tracks

Research and education programs to be developed to address the large-scale societal challenges noted above.

Signal Processing and Machine Learning
Electromagnetics and Acoustics
Data Analytics
Underwater Robotics, Controls
Autonomous sensing and instrumentation

Research Objectives

Faculty members with expertise in multiple ESM areas enable PSU to:

Enable an integrated approach to identifying and solving environmental problems (from sensing to decisions)
Enable faculty to develop ESM-related, interdisciplinary, high-impact projects
Create high visibility within research community
Consistently attract a balanced graduate student body in signal processing, instrumentation and related areas

Educational Objectives

A diverse ESM engineering faculty permits the ECE department to offer a wide range of ESM engineering courses, with the following objectives:

Providing solid fundamentals in remote sensing methods (electromagnetic, acoustic)
Establishing vigorous signal processing and embedded systems MS and PhD tracks
Expanded coursework in fundamentals and applications of machine learning coursework and applications
Developing curriculum on underwater robotics
Emphasizing interdisciplinary curriculum

Research Opportunities

Opportunities exist for both undergraduate and graduate students to participate in ESM faculty research. Please contact a faculty member in our current team listed below to inquire about opportunities.

See our strategic vision.