Participatory Sensing

Participatory Sensing systems leveraging mobile phones and the cloud offer unprecedented observational capacity at the scale of the individual; at the same time they are remarkably scalable and affordable given the wide proliferation of mobile phone infrastructure and consumer devices that incorporate location services, imagers, accelerometers, rich user interfaces, programmability, and ‘app stores’. These systems can be leveraged by individuals and communities to address a range of personal, community and environmental  concerns, from safety and sustainability,  to chronic disease management and prevention. At the same time they present technical challenges in sense-making, usability, and data privacy. We are using Participatory Sensing to address two of the nations key challenges--health and education.

mHealth: The most significant health and wellness challenges across the globe involve chronic illnesses, from diabetes, hypertension, and asthma to depression, sleep disorders, and addiction. And behaviors – such as diet, sleep, and sedentary lifestyle– contribute to the onset or severity of many of these conditions. Participatory mHealth incorporates automated actigraphy and mobility traces, smart context based reminders, phone-mediated exercises, and prompted experience sampling inputs. mHealth can assist patients with adherence to their treatment regimen during the course of their everyday activities, while providing clinicians and researchers data about daily patterns that were not previously attainable and that are critical to personalized diagnosis and treatment. Participatory mHealth is adaptable to a wide variety of chronic disease interventions from maternal health to mental health. http://openmhealth.org

Computational thinking: Mobilize is a targeted NSF supported partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District. At the heart of Mobilize is Participatory Sensing for data collection and analysis in which students use mobile phones and cloud services to systematically collect and interpret data about issues important to them. The goal of Mobilize is to strengthen computer science instruction throughout our educational system and to develop innovative methods for educating and engaging students in computational thinking. Mobilize integrates computational thinking with students’ sense of civic involvement in their communities. Many of our country’s education leaders have prioritized fostering innovation and inventiveness and STEM education for all students as among our country’s most pressing challenges. Mobilize sits at the crux of these issues. http://mobilizingcs.org