WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS RESEARCH COOPERATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON TACOMA AND BRAZILIAN UNIVERSITIES

DOI: 10.14684/intertech.13.2014.29-33 This paper aims to describe the current technical and academic achievements resulting from the cooperation agreements between the Institute of Technology-University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) and Brazilian universities and research institutions. UWT hosted Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students in the academic year 2012-2013. The University of Washington, the Brazilian Science Without Borders Program and the Santander Bank funded these students. The Computer Engineering and Systems program at UWT provided the academic, cultural and research resources that make these achievements possible. In particular, a Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) research group was created to study fundamental concepts and technical implementations. After returning to Brazil, the students continued the research collaboration with UWT in different topics of WSN notably in applications as agricultural irrigation, fire detection, emergency alerts, building occupancy optimization, energy harvesting and energy consumption management. Faculty in Brazilian universities are also part of these joint efforts and new funding was recently approved to extend this successful partnership. Index Terms - International Cooperation, Wireless Sensor Networks, Engineering Education.