Keynote speakers

Abstract

Since first proposed in 2006¹, our idea of using existing received signal level (RSL) measurements taken from commercial communication networks for sensing the environment, gained much attention. In this talk I will present recent results, focusing on two main issues: (a) What can be sensed by microwave links? (b) How the use of sensor networks techniques on the MCN (microwave communication network) enables accurate, real time environmental monitoring in high temporal and spatial resolution.

We show that an MCN can be used for monitoring rainfall, snow, sleet, humidity and fog. Due to the wide spread of cellular communication network, such environmental phenomena can be monitored, for the first time, in areas where standard meteorological tools do not cover.
2-D dynamic rainfall maps and other results produced using real data, provided by major cellular carriers in Israel will be presented.

¹Messer, H; Zinevich, A; Alpert, P: Environmental monitoring by wireless communication networks, SCIENCE, 312 (5774): 713-713, May 5 2006.

Biography

Hagit Messer received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University (TAU), ISRAEL, and after a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University, she joined the faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University in 1986, where she is a Professor of Electrical Engineering. On 2000 - 2003 she has been on leave from TAU, serving as the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science, Israel. After returning to TAU she was the head of the Porter school of environmental studies (2004-6), and the Vice President for Research and Development 2006-8. Since Oct. 1, 2008 Hagit Messer Yaron is the President of the Open University in Israel.

Prof. Hagit Messer, Fellow of the IEEE, is an expert in statistical signal processing. She has published numerous journal and conference papers, including the pioneering publication: Environmental monitoring by wireless communication networks, SCIENCE, 312 (5774): 713-713, May 5 2006 (with A. Zinevich and P. Alpert ) which initiated a new area of research, and for which she received numerous awards, including a WIPO medal, an IEEE best paper award and a special recognition by popular science magazine.
Since the early 90s, she has been continuously involved with the IEEE signal processing society as an associate editor of several of its journals and as a member of both technical and conference organization committees.