Lance Hartung

SpecScape is a crowd-sourcing initiative to collect and analyze radio spectrum data. It uses small radio sensors based on inexpensive commodity hardware and offers aggregated spectrum information over an open API and web dashboard. We aim to facilitate very large-scale collection of such data and make this available in real-time to hobbyists, researchers, and policy-makers. My focus has been on the big-data infrastructure that powers this endeavor.

EasyVizAR provides a comprehensive solution for visual collaboration between emergency responder team members using augmented reality (AR) headsets. Our research explores the potential of AR to enhance situational awareness and collaboration amound team members especially in indoor scenarios. Some of the capabilities that we demonstrated include easy access to automatically-generated maps with synchronized landmark points, visual navigation cues to a target point, and a command dashboard which provides a top-down view of the situation. My focus has been on the use of edge computing to enhance the capabilities of lightweight AR devices and ensure secure and low-latency exchange of critical information between team members.

Paradrop is an open source platform for edge computing. It uses Docker for lightweight isolation of services, which allows it to run on resource-constrained devices such as Wi-Fi access points. My focus has been on issues that affect the developer such as ease of use, the quality of developer tools and APIs, and questions surrounding resource sharing and authorization in a multi-tenant edge computing environment.

WiRover is a networking solution for vehicles (V2I) that leverages one or more heterogeneous wide area links for higher availability and performance. Our solution uses techniques such as tunneling and packet scheduling based on performance metrics (latency and link capacity). My focus has been on implementing algorithms for multipath bandwidth aggregation and adapting our techniques for high-loss uplinks such as WiFi. We have implemented WiRover in both user space with the Linux TUN/TAP driver and in kernel space with a custom Linux kernel module.

Smart-home Activation for Emergency Response (SAFER) is a project built on top of the Paradrop edge computing platform that leverages connected devices in the smart home to respond to emergencies in the most expeditious and life-preserving way. We envision devices that are normally used for entertainment or novelty purposes as taking on a new role in an emergency situation, and the programmability of the Paradrop platform facilitates this transformation. I worked with an outstanding team of five undergraduate and graduate students to design, build, and demonstrate a prototype of the SAFER idea. Our current implementation enables event-triggered video streaming from in-home security cameras to authorized emergency responders.