Second Nature: Designing Low Power Environmental Sensor Networks

This project explores the conceptual, technical and physical design of low power environmental sensors and wireless networks in urban areas. The course will focus on how sensor networks are transforming global efforts in natural resource conservation, and in the preservation of natural ecologies in traditional and rapidly growing cities and urban areas. Second Nature is an exploratory, interdisciplinary project-based course that is founded in the MIT credo of <i>mens et mana</i>. Organized as an interdisciplinary lecture class with a “hands-on” workshop component, Second Nature will enhance the educational experience of undergraduate students in a unique project-based course that integrates the cultural and historical contexts of architecture and urban design thinking with the fabrication of technically advanced sensor based design projects for environmental monitoring and the next generation of environmentally responsible infrastructure.