![\"Members](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/UnderwaterSensorNetwork6.jpg\")
<\/a>The UConn team\u00a0working on\u00a0the three-year, $800,000 project is led by Zheng Peng, assistant research professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Together with Jun-Hong Cui, professor of computer science and engineering, and Shengli Zhou, professor of electrical and computer engineering, the\u00a0researchers will speed up the flow of information for Arctic oceanographers, acoustic communication scientists, and computer network engineers by providing data in real time from beneath the surface of the Arctic.<\/p>\n
Specifically, they will collect information on how acoustic waves form and move in this complex and dynamic region. The goal is to expand the capabilities of underwater communication networks in the area where the sea ice changes from\u00a0stationary ice to mobile ice formations and then to open water.\u00a0Receiving data from the sensors in real time, Peng says,\u00a0is especially\u00a0critical at times when corrective actions need to be\u00a0taken quickly.<\/p>\n He expects that researchers will deploy the sensors off the coast of Thule, Greenland in 2016. It won\u2019t be an easy task. Even under more stable conditions, deploying and sustaining wireless sensors is tricky. Keeping them powered, for one thing, is a challenge. While sensors attached to surface buoys can rely on solar energy, devices that are stationed deeper in the ocean have to rely on batteries with limited capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have to design our systems to be very, very energy-efficient,\u201d Peng says.<\/p>\n And a volatile, ice-covered region presents its own particular set of challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Arctic , there are more severe problems,\u201d says Peng. Glaciers can wreak all sorts of havoc to the sensors\u2019 signals. Sometimes they block the signal altogether, or boost it in unpredictable ways.\u00a0\u00a0That calls for developing resilient hardware for the sensors.<\/p>\n More than 70 percent of the planet is water, Peng notes, and with resources on land \u201ckind of limited,\u201d people will eventually be going underwater to make up for that loss.<\/p>\n<\/a>