Superfund Research Program

July 2023

Hot Publication

Researchers at the Wayne State University SRP Center developed a new technique that couples the Internet of Things sensor network with Edge Computing (IoTEC) to improve environmental monitoring.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that allows researchers to monitor environmental parameters onsite, gathering and transmitting data over the internet so it can be analyzed remotely. While this technology has improved onsite monitoring and data processing, it is limited by its high energy usage, internet bandwidth, and data storage requirements. To address this challenge, the research team incorporated edge computing — a hybrid data model that uses edge servers and cloud computing to keep data analysis close to the source while still allowing data processing on the cloud when needed.

The researchers tested their sensor packages in two pilot applications to monitor:

  • (1) Vapor intrusion — when pollution moves from air spaces in soil to indoor air.
  • (2) Algae cultivation in wastewater.

In the first pilot study, researchers found that, compared to conventional IoT-based monitoring, IoTEC reduced unnecessary data transmission and data latency, or how long it takes for data to be stored or retrieved. Additionally, the authors estimated that IoTEC resulted in a cost reduction of 55-82% for vapor intrusion monitoring that covered five houses.

In the second pilot study, the team coupled machine learning tools with IoTEC to monitor and predict system performance of wastewater-based algae cultivation. As a result of implementing different machine learning algorithms at edge servers, data processing and analysis improved.

According to the authors, IoTEC, compared to more conventional sensor monitoring methods, can lower the energy and bandwidth needs for data transmission, shorten response times, and reduce costs, overall alleviating current challenges to real-time environmental monitoring.

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