This video provides the basics of metal oxide gas (MOX) sensing structure and working principles. A sample structure of a gas sensor is presented as well as a sampling system and a measurement architecture.

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Marco Muganaini

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming popular as carrier for several sensors and measurement systems, due to their low weight, small size, low cost and easy handling, which make them flexible and suitable in many measurement applications, mainly when the quantity to be measured is spread over a wide area or it lies in human-hostile environments. 

The tutorial introduces the architecture of the drone and show how the drone and its subsystems can be properly sized and characterized, according to the specification of the sensors and measurement systems that will be embedded on it.

The drone equipped with the sensors must be thought as a measurement platform and needs a metrological characterization. The tutorial presents some measurement applications, and for such applications, the measurement chain is analyzed, and the influence of the flight parameters is taken into account to assess the measurement uncertainty.

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Luca De Vito (M’10–SM’12) received the master’s (cum laude) degree in software engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. His master’s thesis was on automatic classification and characterization of digitally modulated signals. He joined the Laboratory of Signal Processing and Measurement Information, University of Sannio, where he was involved in research activities. In 2008, he joined the Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, as an Assistant Professor in electric and electronic measurement. In 2013, he received the National Academic Qualification as an Associate Professor. Since 2015, he is a Visiting Scientist at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, collaborating with the magnetic measurement and the control engineering sections. He is member of the IEEE since 2010, he is member of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic System Society, and of the IEEE Standards Association. He is Senior Member of the IEEE since 2012. He member of the AFCEA and is Young President of the AFCEA Naples Charter.

He published more than 90 papers on international journals and conference proceedings, mainly dealing with measurements for the telecommunications, data converter testing and biomedical instrumentation.

Distributed measurement systems are becoming pervasive in our daily life and collaborative networks are becoming more and more common so there is the necessity to be aware of the real meaning and implications of terms ‘distributed’ and ‘collaborative’.

This tutorial is designed to let the audience to be acquainted with the different architectures of distributed measurement systems and to learn how to design a distributed measurement network, how to add collaborative functionalities and what are the implications in terms of safety and privacy of the collaborative options.

The tutorial is conceived with an initial lecture part, which discusses the different architectures, which can be used to arrange a distributed network, the possibilities offered by the collaboration between used on an effortless basis and the risks in terms of security and privacy and a final part which shows an example of practical implementation.

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Luca Lombardo was born in Italy in 1986. He received his B.D. and M.S. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Messina, Italy, in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Metrology from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, in 2019. Currently, he is a research fellow with the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. His research interests include the development of innovative sensors, distributed and collaborative systems for environmental monitoring and biomedical applications, embedded systems, and instrumentation devices in general.

In this tutorial from the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, Luca De Vito and Francesco Picariello present the issues related to the design and the characterization of a measurement system based on a drone, with particular attention to the procedure to determine the influence of the platform on the measurement accuracy.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming popular as carrier for several sensors and measurement systems, due to their low weight, small size, low cost, and easy handling, which make them flexible and suitable in many measurement applications, mainly when the quantity to be measured is spread over a wide area or it lies in human-hostile environments. However, the drone itself can interact with both the measurand and the sensors, thus influencing the measurement results. For this reason, the drone equipped with the sensors must be thought as a measurement platform and must be characterized as a whole. The tutorial will introduce the architecture of the drone, by highlighting its subsystems and the parameters that can influence the on-board sensors and measurement systems. Then, an overview of the sensors and measurement systems that can be embedded on the drone will be given, by presenting their operating principle and applications. Finally, some measurement applications will be described. For such applications, the measurement chain is analyzed and the influence of the flight parameters is taken into account to assess the measurement uncertainty.

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Luca De Vito (M’10–SM’12) received the master’s (cum laude) degree in software engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. His master’s thesis was on automatic classification and characterization of digitally modulated signals. He joined the Laboratory of Signal Processing and Measurement Information, University of Sannio, where he was involved in research activities. In 2008, he joined the Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, as an Assistant Professor in electric and electronic measurement. In 2013, he received the National Academic Qualification as an Associate Professor. Since 2015, he is a Visiting Scientist at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, collaborating with the magnetic measurement and the control engineering sections. He is a member of the IEEE since 2010, he is a member of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic System Society, and of the IEEE Standards Association. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE since 2012. He member of the AFCEA and is the Young President of the AFCEA Naples Charter.

He published more than 90 papers in international journals and conference proceedings, mainly dealing with measurements for telecommunications, data converter testing, and biomedical instrumentation.

Among various industrial tomography modalities, electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) is the most mature and has been used for many challenging applications. ECT is based on measuring very small capacitance from a multi-electrode sensor and reconstructing the permittivity distribution in a cross section of an industrial process. Compared with other tomography modalities, ECT has several advantages: no radioactive, fast response, both non-intrusive and non-invasive, withstanding high temperature and high pressure and of low-cost. Because of very small capacitance to be measured (much smaller than 1 pF) and the “soft-field” nature, ECT does present challenges in capacitance measurement and solving the inverse problem. The latest AC-based ECT system can generate online images typically at 100 frames per second with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 73 dB. Examples of industrial applications include gas/oil/water flows, wet gas separation, pneumatic conveyors, cyclone separators, pharmaceutical fluidised beds, and clean use of coal by circulating fluidised bed combustion and methanol-to-olefins conversion. During this tutorial, ECT is discussed from principle to industrial applications, together with demonstration of an AC-based ECT system.

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Wuqiang Yang graduated from Tsinghua University. Since 1991, he has been working with UMIST and The University of Manchester in the UK. He became Professor of Electronic Instrumentation in the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2005. His main research interests include industrial tomography, especially electrical capacitance tomography (ECT), sensing and data acquisition systems, circuit design, image reconstruction algorithms, instrumentation and multiphase flow measurement. He has published 400 papers with an h-index of 45. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. IM, editorial board member of 6 other journals (including Meas. Sci. Technol.), guest editor of many journal special issues, referee for more than 50 journals and visiting professor at several other universities. He has two books published: “Sensor Array” by InTech and “Imaging Sensor Technologies and Applications” by IET. He received several national awards, including the 1997 IEE/NPL Wheatstone Measurement Prize. He was an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer from 2010 to 2016, Vice Chair of I2MTC 2017, and one of key organisers of IEEE International Conference on Imaging System and Techniques for many years. His biography has been included in Who’s Who in the World since 2002.

This video covers this new branch of metrology from the perspective of law professionals. Its aim is to show how the correct expression of measurement results, together with their uncertainty, can help the trier of fact to issue its sentence, especially when the solution of the case involves exclusively (or almost exclusively) technical or scientific issues.

A brief survey of the elementary background of the two most widespread law systems common law and civil law is given, to analyze similarities and differences and show when and how experimental tests can be requested by investigators and judges to help reconstruct a criminal event.

A brief survey is also given of the uncertainty concept and how uncertainty should be presented and used when a measurement result is employed to assess whether a given threshold has been exceeded or not.

It is explained why the correct interpretation of measurement activities and results plays an important role in trials, both in common and civil law systems. In fact, despite these two systems are deeply different under most respects, they both follow the universally recognized principle of ne bis in idem. This means that nobody can be prosecuted for the same criminal conduct for more than once. The consequences, ethical, social and economical, and not only legal, of an incorrect interpretation of the measurement results can be hence easily understood, since a crime may remain unpunished.

A couple of examples are given or real cases where measurement uncertainty played a major role.

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Veronica Scotti

In this tutorial from the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, Marius Gheorge covers a number of topics that are encountered in parallel calibration and testing of MEMS-based inertial sensors, and is supported with real-life examples from a system designed to calibrate and test 30 IMUs in parallel.

MEMS-based inertial sensors are ubiquitous in many applications primarily due to their size and cost benefits. It is important to note that even when the inertial sensors are calibrated individually prior to being assembled in higher level assemblies, such as inertial measurement units (IMU), the packaging process may induce other issues such as misalignments or errors caused by temperature gradients inside the case. Two main factors elevate the importance of parallel calibration and testing: cost per unit and throughput. This tutorial covers a number of topics that are encountered in parallel calibration and testing of MEMS-based inertial sensors and is supported with real-life examples from a system designed to calibrate and test 30 IMUs in parallel. The presented topics range from theoretical to practical and encompass mechanical, electrical, and software design aspects. Given the ever-expanding range of applications for MEMS-based inertial sensors in recent years, parallel calibration and testing is expected to play an even bigger role going forward by matching affordability and performance. Notwithstanding the focus on MEMS-based inertial sensors, the concepts presented in this tutorial apply directly or through extension to the calibration and testing of tactical grade and navigation grade IMUs and inertial sensors.

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Marius Gheorghe has earned a degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania in 1986.

A great deal of his professional career was dedicated to designing test equipment used in a variety of applications ranging from the semiconductor industry to military jet aircraft, nuclear submarines and space programs. Prior to joining Ideal Aerosmith Inc., where he holds the position of Engineering Manager, he has worked for over 14 years with a world leader in ATE manufacturing in Ontario, Canada. His portfolio includes substantial hardware and software design, award-winning ATE and technical leadership. In addition to his industry experience, he has authored papers on inertial sensor calibration techniques and has taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest and the Advanced Computer Training for Engineers, Toronto.

Mr. Gheorghe is a member of IEEE and licensed as Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada. He has been awarded the Distinguished Committee Service Award for his contribution to the development of the IPC/WHMA-A-620A standard in 2007 and his Horizon 1500 wiring analyzer design was awarded The Best in Test by Test and Measurement World in 1996.

This video covers the main characteristics of data delivery in industrial communication, particularly for wireless links. The importance of a properly-designed communication protocol stack is stressed. Some significant solutions are briefly covered.

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Emiliano Sisinni

In this tutorial from the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, Sergio Saponara focuses on recent advances in sensors and on-board instrumentation for new vehicle generations with driver-assistance capabilities.

The tutorial will focus on recent advances in sensors and on-board instrumentation for new vehicle generations with driver-assistance capability. The economic and social impact of this application field is huge: every year 90 millions of vehicles are sold worldwide, but 1.25 millions of people are killed due to lack of safety. In US 3.1 billions of gallons of fuel are wasted due to traffic congestion. Assisted driving, and in the next future autonomous driving, will increase safety, and will enable intelligent management of traffic flows. Key enabling technologies for this scenario are the on-board sensing systems and relevant HW-SW acquisition/processing instrumentation for collision avoidance, cruise and brake control, parking assistance, enhanced driver vision, tyre condition monitoring, to name just a few. The tutorial will be divided in 4 Parts. In Part 1 ""Introduction"", innovation and market trends in the field of ICT applied to vehicles and intelligent transport systems will be discussed, particularly focusing on next generation of driver-assisted/autonomous vehicles. In Part 2 ""Advanced Sensors for Detection and Ranging"" real-time sensor acquisition and processing of data from Radar and Lidar will be discussed. A comparison of the two technologies will be also carried out. These sensors aim at detecting if there are obstacles around the vehicle, and at measuring their distance, relative speeds, and directions. Practical examples of multi-channel vehicular Radar systems developed by the instructor will be discussed. Instead, Part 3 ""Vision Sensors for Smart Vehicles and ITS"" will focus on vision sensors, organized as array of video cameras operating in visible or near infrared spectrum. The problem of reducing the distortions caused by the adoption of large Field of View fish eye lens will be also discussed. Some applications to traffic sign recognition systems, road signs recognition, image mosaicking for all around view during parking assistance, will be discussed. Finally, Part 4 ""Sensor Fusion Towards the Autonomous Car"" will discuss examples of driver assistance/autonomous navigation by using sensor fusion (i.e. integrating information coming from Radar and Lidar and video camera). An analysis of errors in real-time obstacle tracking will be done. Functional safety issues will be also discussed.

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Prof. Sergio Saponara, IEEE SM, got Master and PhD degrees in Electronic Engineering from University of Pisa. He had positions with the CSMDR-CNR, and with IMEC as Marie Curie research fellow. Currently, he is a Professor at University of Pisa where he teaches several courses (and also at the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno) on electronic systems and instrumentation for vehicular engineering, automation/robotics engineering, maritime and naval science. He is the scientific director of the Summer School of the University of Pisa Enabling technologies for IoT and is co-founder of the post-graduate Master in Automotive Engineering and Principles of Management by Universities of Pisa and Florence. He is a member of the scientific council of UCAR: interUniversity Center of Automotive Research. He held lectures on advanced sensing and processing systems for Summer Schools, PhD programs, for the Pianeta Galileo and TRIO e-learning programs of Tuscany Region, for international companies such as Magna and ABB-Power One, and for invited talks, round tables and tutorials at IEEE and SPIE conferences. His research interests include smart sensors and actuators, also with wireless connectivity, integrated electronics, new instrumentation and measurement systems. Application domains are vehicles and intelligent transports, on-board space electronics, wearable and/or wireless sensing for IoT. He co-authored 300 international scientific papers. His H-index is 22 in Scopus/WoS and 25 in Google Scholar. He is member of 2 IEEE standardization activities, of 3 TCs of the IEEE IMS, of the IEEE special interest group in IoT and of the World Forum on IoT. He served in the organization of more than 100 international conferences, most from IEEE and SPIE. He is member of the reviewing board of more than 50 journals from IEEE, IET, Elsevier, Springer. He is also Associate Editor or Guest Editor of 6 international peer-reviewed journals. His technology transfer activity includes collaborations with big companies (STMicroelectronics, Renesas, Selex, Ericsson, Piaggio, Valeo, Magna, AMS) and SMEs, with 17 international patents. He is co-founder and CTO of Ingeniars srl, a spin-off company of the University of Pisa. He served as project or WP manager in several national and international projects. He is associate member of the INFN, of the National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT) and for Informatics (CINI), and of the EU networks of excellence NEWCOM and HIPEAC.

The video is addressing the general topic of measurements in emerging power systems. Firstly, disruptive changes in electric power systems are analyzed in order to understand the impact on the requirements for control and instrumentation in smart grids; then  modern measurement chains are presented together with their potential use in coping with limited knowledge on the grid infrastructure, new power quality issues generated by distributed generation or wide area measurement and control in low inertial systems. Ways of merging the information delivered by existing (SCADA, intelligent electronic devices ) and emerging (Phasor measurement units -PMUs and microPMUs) measurement systems are presented, as part of applications like the power system state estimation; The tutorial highlights the importance of assessment the measurement channel quality together with the silently adopted models for energy transfer, and issues like voltage and frequency variability; rate of change of frequency; the steady-state signal and rapid voltage changes; measurement data aggregation; filtering properties; time- aggregation algorithms in the PQ framework. The presentation ends with new applications enabled by smart metering with high reporting rate (1s) and highlights some of the challenges for measurement systems in smart grids.

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Mihaela Albu is a professor of electrical engineering, graduated (1987) from Power Engineering Department of UPB and holds the Ph.D. degree (1998) from the same university. She is teaching courses on electrical measurements, signal processing and Smart Grids topics at both graduate and undergraduate programmes of UPB. Her research interests encompass synchronized measurements for wide area measurement and control systems; smart metering; DC and hybrid microgrids; power quality, IEEE and IEC standards in power (including contribution to the IEC TC8/JWG12: System aspects of electrical energy supply-Requirements for frequency measurement used to control DER and loads). Dr Albu was spending a leave at Arizona State University as a Fulbright Fellow 2002 – 2003 and in 2010. She has been P.I. of more than 40 research projects, funded by national and international research agencies, on measurements in smart grids topics. Dr. Albu is a Senior Member of the IEEE and member of the IEEE IMS TC39, Instrumentation for the Power Systems. Mihaela Albu presented several tutorials at I2MTC (2010-2019) and has been invited as IMS DL (2017-2020) at events in R8 and R10.

In this IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society tutorial, Luca Callegaro illustrates how metrology is close to a revolution. The organizations of the Metre Convention are supporting a redefinition of the International System of units (SI), the international basis of scientific, technical and everyday measurements.

The 26th Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures (CGPM, General Conference of Weights and Measures), in 2018, will make effective the redefinition worldwide. The seven SI base units (second, metre, kilogram, ampere, kelvin, mole, candela) will be redefined by linking each unit to a corresponding fundamental constant of nature. The value of the constants will be permanently fixed to an exact value, with zero uncertainty. The practical realization of the SI units will be mostly based on quantum metrology experiments, involving both atomic and solid-state quantum phenomena. To ensure a minimal quantitative change of the future SI units with respect to the present ones, the values of the constants will be chosen to be the best estimates of the same, as recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). The electrical base unit, the ampere, has in the present SI an involved and obscure mechanical definition (based on the magnetic repulsion between two infinite, straight wires), unsuitable for a practical realization. The redefinition of the ampere in the new SI takes as basis a fixed value of the fundamental constant elementary charge, paving the way for a straightforward practical realization of the unit: count a fixed number (close to 1.6E19) of electrons through a wire in the unit of time (the second). Quantum electrical metrology experiments are not limited to single-electron counting, which can be performed with nanodevices. Superconducting integrated circuits allow the generation, via the ac Josephson effect, of voltages of quantized amplitude, directly related to the elementary charge, the Planck constant, and a drive frequency. Semiconductor devices (including graphene ones) under high magnetic field exhibit the quantum Hall effect, which gives a quantized resistance, again directly related to the elementary charge and the Planck constant. Although at the frontier of research in solid-state quantum physics, once thoroughly investigated in research laboratory, quantum electrical metrology experiments show the potential to be exploited in commercial instrumental setups. Present metrology research efforts focus also on the realization of quantum standards suitable for continuous operation in an industrial environment (e.g., an industry calibration laboratory) and capable of performing automated calibrations of artifact standards and instruments. EURAMET, the European Association of National Metrology Institutes, supports the research on quantum electrical metrology in the framework of the EMPIR (European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research) with joint research projects. Several projects focused, and will certainly focus in the future, on the realization of new quantum metrology experiments towards accurate and user-friendly practical realizations of the electrical units in the forthcoming SI.

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Luca Callegaro (1967) is an Electronic Engineer (Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 1992) and holds a PhD in Physics (Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 1996). He is a permanent researcher at INRIM since 1996, and presently senior researcher. He leads the research program NM2 ""Metrology of the ampere"" of the Nanoscience and Materials Division of INRIM and is responsible for the Italian National Standards of electrical ac resistance, electrical inductance, electrical capacitance, and ac voltage ratio.

He is Chairman of the EURAMET Technical Committee on Electricity and Magnetism (TC-EM) and Contact Person of TC-EM for Italy. He is the Italian officer for the Commission A of the Union Radio Scientifique Internationale (URSI).

He has a habilitation as Full Professor of Electrical and Electronic Measurements, and member of the PhD Metrology Council of INRIM-Politecnico di Torino. He has been adjunct professor of Electronic Measurements at the Politecnico di Torino.

He is author or co-author of more than 80 papers on international reviews (ISI), of about 150 other papers, and of the book ""Electrical impedance: principles, measurement, applications"", Taylor and Francis, 2013.

This tutorial discusses the importance of biomimicry - how models, systems, and elements of nature are excellent sources of information and inspiration for the development of future sensors and measurement systems.

Instructor: Gourab Sen Gupta

Audience: Young Professionals, Professionals in I&M, Researchers, Students

Publication Year: 2016

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This video presents an overview of sensors, smart sensors, and sensor networks. It defines the main concepts related to sensors and sensor networks, paying attention to the metrological point of view. It provides an overview of communication protocols.

Instructor: Alessandra Flammini

Audience: Young Professionals, Professionals in I&M, Researchers, Students

Publication Year: 2016

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This tutorial discusses sensor applications in the area of precision agriculture to monitor the health of plants growing in a research laboratory, measure the body condition score of cows using vision sensing, and food texture measurement using force sensors.

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Gourab Sen Gupta

This video deals with how to detect single-photon using avalanche gain in silicon.

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Dr. Edward Fisher (M’08) received the M.Eng. degree in electronic and electrical engineering from The University of Edinburgh, working with ST Microelectronics on automatic exposure algorithms for image sensors. After completing his Ph.D. in single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) arrays in CMOS for optical communications (University of Edinburgh), he began work on high-speed, parallel data acquisition systems as a member of the Agile Tomography Group (ATG) within the Institute of Digital Communications. This work aims to provide chemical species tomography diagnostics for aero-engines in collaboration with Rolls-Royce, Royal Dutch Shell and academia within the FLITES project. He was awarded a fellowship with The Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) in 2016, to promote best practices in code development. His research interests include mixed-signal instrumentation, signal processing, embedded systems and communications. He periodically revisits SPAD research with a 2017 book chapter on array readout topologies for optical communications and a book chapter (in press) on the early historical development of avalanche multiplication and SPADs. This covers the period of 1900 to 1969, however he is currently conducting the historical analysis of the 1970s and 80s for future publication. He is a member of the IEEE, IET and IOP, and a reviewer for IEEE TCAS:1.

This video presents an overview on time synchronization techniques for distributed measurement systems. It defines the main concept of synchronization and covers the most important and most used techniques to distribute time information.

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Stefano Rinaldi

In this tutorial from the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, Octavian Postolache reviews advantages and challenges of IoT for physiotherapy software platforms, as well as important issues such as data security and privacy. IoT and Cloud Computing are very promissory technologies regarding patient monitoring and information management especially for particular case of physical rehabilitation. Thus, IoT enabled devices capture and monitor relevant data for the patients under rehabilitation process in clinics or in their own homes that allow providers to gain insights without having to bring patients in for visits. IoT can help improve patient outcomes based on objective evaluation of the rehabilitation progress, communication among health professionals, communication with the patients, data accuracy and the capacity to support clinical research. Tailored Environments associated with serious game and augmented reality, IoT compatible, enable the measurement of patient balance and movements providing data to be used for physiotherapy effectiveness evaluation. As part of these interactive environments, natural user interfaces expressed by leap motion and Kinect, daily used smart physical rehabilitation equipment, such as smart walkers and crutches, wearable motor activity monitors with EMG, force and acceleration measurement capabilities will be discussed. Sensing technologies materialized by piezo resistive force sensors microwave radar motion sensors, MEMS inertial sensors, optical fiber sensors will be presented together appropriate signal processing techniques implemented on client side or on the cloud side.

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Prof. Dr. Octavian Adrian Postolache (M’99, SM’2006) graduated in Electrical Engineering at the Gh. Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania, in 1992 and he received the PhD degree in 1999 from the same university, and university habilitation in 2016 from Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. In the period 1992-2000 he worked as assistant and assistant professor at Technical University of Iasi. In 2000 he became principal researcher of Instituto de Telecomunicações where he is now Senior Researcher. He served as invited professor at EST/IPS Setubal, Portugal between 2001 and 2012 when he joined Instituto Universitario de Lisboa/ ISCTE-IUL Lisbon where he is currently Aux. Professor. His fields of interests are smart sensors for biomedical and environmental applications, pervasive sensing and computing, wireless sensor networks, signal processing with application in biomedical and telecommunications, non-destructive testing and diagnosis based on eddy currents smart sensors, computational intelligence with application in automated measurement systems. He was principal researcher of different projects including EHR-Physio regarding the implementation of Electronic Health Records for Physiotherapy and he is currently principal researcher of TailorPhy project Smart Sensors and Tailored Environments for Physiotheraphy.He served as technical principal researcher in projects such Crack Project related non-destructive testing of conductive materials. He is vice-director of Instituto de Telecomunicações/ISCTE-IUL delegation, director of PhD program Science and Communication Technologies at ISCTE-IUL, and he was leader of several collaboration projects between the Instituto de Telecomunicaçoes and the industry such as Home TeleCare project with Portuguese Telecommunication Agency for Innovation (PT Inovação), Integrated Spectrum Monitoring project with National Communication Agency (ANACOM). He is active member of national and international research teams involved in Portuguese and EU and International projects. Dr. Postolache is author and co-author of 9 patents, 4 books, 16 book chapters, 67 papers in international journals with peer review, more than 220 papers in proceedings of international conferences. He is IEEE Senior Member I&M Society, Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE IMS, chair of IEEE I&MSTC-13 Wireless and Telecommunications in Measurements, member of IEEE I&M TC-17, IEEE I&M TC-18, IEEE I&MS TC-25, IEEE EMBS Portugal Chapter and chair of IEEE IMS Portugal Chapter. He is Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal, and IEEE Transaction on Instrumentation and Measurements, he was general chair of IEEE MeMeA 2014, and TPC chair of ICST 2014, Liverpool and ICST 2015 in Aukland. He received IEEE best reviewer and the best associate editor in 2011 and 2013 and other awards related to his research activity in the field of smart sensing.

In this video, we start by clarifying what a wireless sensor network (WSN) is and the history behind its current state-of-the-art. After presenting some examples of hardware available to implement WSNs nodes and a few indicators of the present trend of WSNs, the enabling technologies and some typical applications of WSNs are briefly addressed. The video ends with some conclusions namely related with the relation between WSNs and IoT and Big Data, and with some reading advices and a list of companies strongly involved in WSNs development.

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Pedro Silva Giaro

The tutorial explains what are ADC and DAC, why they are important in our daily lives and why there is the demand for ADC and DAC standardized metrology. Then, the overview of ADC and DAC existing standards is presented highlighting the open questions to be solved in this field, too.

Eulalia Balestrieri received the M.S. degree in software engineering and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Then, she joined the research activities carried out at the Laboratory of Signal Processing and Measurement Information, University of Sannio. She is currently developing research on digital signal processing for measurement in telecommunications and the metrological characterization of data converters.

The tutorial titled ‘Calibrating a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA)’ outlines the process of completing a full two-port calibration on a Vector Network Analyzer. The tutorial assumes that the viewer is already familiar with the VNA and its capabilities. Topics discussed include basic VNA settings, different types of calibrations, calibration kits, and finally the process necessary to complete a full two-port calibration.

Kristen M. Donnell earned her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in May 2001 from Colorado State University. She received her Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering in December 2003 from the University of Missouri-Rolla. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST) in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in electromagnetics/microwave nondestructive testing. She is conducting her Ph.D. research at the Applied Microwave Nondestructive Testing Laboratory (amntl). Since 1998, Kristen has been with the amntl as both an Undergraduate and Graduate Research Assistant. Her current research interests include the development and application of the embedded modulated scatterer technique (MST). Prior to starting her Ph.D. work, Kristen was employed by Raytheon Company from 2003 to 2006 as a Systems Engineer and Electrical Engineer. Kristen has served as the Graduate Student Representative to the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society since 2007, is a registered Engineer in Training (EIT) in the state of Colorado, and holds a Technician Class Ham Radio license

The tutorial titled ‘Characterizing a 2-, 3-, and 4-port Device’ discusses the process necessary to characterize a 2-, 3-, and 4-port microwave/high frequency device using S-parameter measurements. The tutorial assumes the viewer is familiar with basic Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) operation and basic microwave S-parameter characterization principles. The tutorial outlines the additional components necessary (match loads, thru adapters, etc), and provides a step-by-step connection procedure for each of the three types of devices.

Kristen M. Donnell earned her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in May 2001 from Colorado State University. She received her Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering in December 2003 from the University of Missouri-Rolla. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST) in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in electromagnetics/microwave nondestructive testing. She is conducting her Ph.D. research at the Applied Microwave Nondestructive Testing Laboratory (amntl). Since 1998, Kristen has been with the amntl as both an Undergraduate and Graduate Research Assistant. Her current research interests include the development and application of the embedded modulated scatterer technique (MST). Prior to starting her Ph.D. work, Kristen was employed by Raytheon Company from 2003 to 2006 as a Systems Engineer and Electrical Engineer. Kristen has served as the Graduate Student Representative to the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society since 2007, is a registered Engineer in Training (EIT) in the state of Colorado, and holds a Technician Class Ham Radio license

No description currently available.

Simona Salicone.

The road between an academic proof-of-concept and the actual commercial product is long and difficult. Many bright ideas that demonstrate a usable proof-of-concept die on the road to commercial realization. Many reasons exist for really good ideas failing to become viable commercial products, a few include: funding to cover effort, lack of real market research, and luck. This tutorial will touch each of these topics. The goal is to give you some practical insights into avoiding pitfalls and to increasing your chances of success.

Kim Fowler has spent 27 years in the design, development, and project management of medical, military, and satellite equipment. He co-founded Stimsoft, a medical products company, in 1998 and sold it in 2003, and has worked for JHU/APL and Ixthos. Kim currently consults in technical development for both commercial companies and government agencies; his focus is on engineering processes in designing and developing products and systems. Kim is the Executive Vice President of the IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society for 2009. He spent 9 years as Editor-In-Chief of the award-winning IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement magazine and writes the “Tried and True” column. Kim is an adjunct professor for the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Professional Program and lectures internationally on systems engineering and developing real-time embedded. Kim has written, “Electronic Instrument Design: Architecting for the Life Cycle,” (1996, Oxford University Press) and “What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Real-Time Embedded Products,” (2008, CRC Press). He is currently editing a large reference handbook for Elsevier Science Newnes titled, "Reference Handbook for Developing Mission-Assurance and Safety-Critical Systems." He has published over 50 articles in engineering journals and proceedings, has 17 patents - granted, pending, or disclosed.

Data acquisition Part 1 - Introduction This tutorial introduces you to the fundamentals of instrumentation and measurement. You should learn the following objectives: - the need for measurement, - the basic principles of measurements, - the basic components or subsystems of a measurement instrument, - block diagrams of the various architectures for instrumentation.

Data acquisition Part 2 - Definitions, Design, and Architecture This tutorial, part 2 in the series, should help you understand: • some basic definitions for sensors. • the basic principles of sampling and anti-alias filtering. • and the calculations to estimate the noise and signal-to-noise ratio for sensors and analog-to-digital converters.

Data acquisition Part 3 - Analog-to-Digital Converters This tutorial, part 3 in the series, should help you understand: - how to select an appropriate analog-to-digital converter for use in a sensor. - some of the basic shortcomings of analog-to-digital converters. - and some tests for analog-to-digital converters.

Kim Fowler has spent 27 years in the design, development, and project management of medical, military, and satellite equipment. He co-founded Stimsoft, a medical products company, in 1998 and sold it in 2003, and has worked for JHU/APL and Ixthos. Kim currently consults in technical development for both commercial companies and government agencies; his focus is on engineering processes in designing and developing products and systems. Kim is the Executive Vice President of the IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society for 2009. He spent 9 years as Editor-In-Chief of the award-winning IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement magazine and writes the “Tried and True” column. Kim is an adjunct professor for the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Professional Program and lectures internationally on systems engineering and developing real-time embedded. Kim has written, “Electronic Instrument Design: Architecting for the Life Cycle,” (1996, Oxford University Press) and “What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Real-Time Embedded Products,” (2008, CRC Press). He is currently editing a large reference handbook for Elsevier Science Newnes titled, "Reference Handbook for Developing Mission-Assurance and Safety-Critical Systems." He has published over 50 articles in engineering journals and proceedings, has 17 patents - granted, pending, or disclosed.

Real-world applications often confront the designer with unusual requirements not readily apparent in the classroom. Many environmental sensing applications are, or could be, battery powered. Part B of the ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING AND MEASUREMENTS presentation begins by discussing the desirability (and advantages) of reducing power consumption to an absolute minimum. A specific design example involving a lengthy string of many temperature sensors in an industrial application illustrates the consequences of apparently innocuous power consumption decisions to system architecture and, by extension, to the operating life of a battery-powered system. The presentation then reviews U.S. NOAA Cooperative Observer Program siting requirements for temperature measurements typical of those used in weather reporting, and shows how a truly robust design must also anticipate little-discussed non-electronic issues (such as mud daubers, fire ants, rodents, snakes, and cattle looking for a convenient scratching post).

J. M. Dias Pereira (M’00–SM’04) was born in Portugal in 1959. He received is degree in Electrical Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) of the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL) in 1982. During almost eight years he worked for Portugal Telecom in digital switching and transmission systems. In 1992, he returned to teaching as an Assistant Professor in Escola Superior de Tecnologia of Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal where he is, at present, a Coordinator Professor. In 1995 he received the MSc degree and in 1999 the PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from IST. His main research interests are included in the Instrumentation and Measurements areas. Michael F. Gard (SM ’84) was born in McPherson, KS in 1949. He received the B.S. in Electrical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS in 1971, the M.S. in Electrical Engineering (Interdepartmental Program in Biomedical Engineering) from Washington University, St. Louis, MO in 1972, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Geophysics from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX in 1992. Dr. Gard is presently a Sr. Electrical Engineer employed by The Charles Machine Works, Perry, OK. Previous employers include Beech Aircraft Corporation, the Veterans Administration Medical Center (St. Louis, MO), AMOCO Exploration Company, ARCO Oil and Gas, and GE Medical Systems. He occasionally teaches as adjunct faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. He is a registered professional engineer; a registered patent agent; holder of twenty-six patents; author of one book and over a dozen published papers, articles, or book chapters; Co-chairman of TC-18, the Instrumentation and Measurement Society’s Technical Committee on Environmental Monitoring; and serves as a reviewer for the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. His primary technical interests include real-time data acquisition and precision analog and analog/digital system design for low power and hostile environments.

At nanoscale dimensions, materials can exhibit entirely new properties associated with quantum physical phenomena. Manufacturers are seeking to use these properties for applications in nanoelectronics, semiconductors, smart materials, biotechnology, alternative energy sources, and many more. In many of these applications, nanotechnology researchers often need to measure extremely small currents and voltages—measurements that are typically difficult to perform accurately. This presentation discusses the challenges associated with measurements of nanoscale materials and devices and how to minimize the effect of a variety of error sources.

Jonathan Tucker is the Senior Marketer for Nanotechnology, Research and Education and Sensitive Measurements Product Line Manager at Keithley Instruments in Cleveland, Ohio. He joined Keithley Instruments in 1987 and has held numerous positions including Test Engineer, Applications Engineer, Applications Manager, and Product Marketer. His current focus is business strategy and product development of electrical characterization and measurement tools for nanotechnology applications. As a strong advocate for measurement and metrology standards for nanotechnology, Jonathan is the Chairman of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Standards Committee, the Co-Chair of the IEEE Nanoelectronics Standards Roadmap initiative, and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Cleveland Nano-Network. Jonathan is also the IEEE-SA primary member of the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Organization for Standardization technical committee on nanotechnologies (ISO TC229). He is also a recipient of a Nano Science and Technology Institute Fellow Award for outstanding contributions towards the advancement of the international NSTI Nanotechnology, Microtechnology, and Biotechnology Community. He holds a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering degree from Cleveland State University and an MBA from Kent State University.

Optical sensors and photonic devices have technically matured to the point that they are increasingly considered as alternatives for their electronic counterparts in numerous applications across the industry. In particular, the utilization of optical sensors has been considered for harsh or explosive environments where conventional transducers are difficult to deploy or where their operation is compromised by electromagnetic interference. This tutorial will explain the motivation for research on fiber-optic sensors, highlight the basic theories underlying their operation, and present selected examples of R&D projects targeting a range of industrial applications. The goal is to highlight great potential of optical sensors and to enrich your experience in instrumentation and measurement using alternative, non-electronic methods.

Pawel Niewczas is a British Energy Lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. He is leading the Advanced Sensors Team within the Institute for Energy and Environment in the same department. His main interests centre on the advancement of optical sensing methods in applications that lie predominantly in the fields of power industry and energy systems.

The last 5 years has seen increasing interest in the use of synchronized clocks in distributed system architectures. This is a direct result of the achievable synchronization performance using protocols such as IEEE 1588 and the availability of commercial silicon and infrastructure supporting these protocols. This video will provide an overview of the operation and the performance of IEEE 1588 and a discussion of existing and potential applications of IEEE 1588.

John C. Eidson received his BS and MS degrees from Michigan State University and his PhD. Degree from Stanford University all in electrical engineering. He held a postdoctoral position at Stanford for two years after receiving the PhD. He then spent 6 years with the Central Research Laboratory of Varian Associates where he worked on device physics and analytic instrumentation. In 1972 he joined the Central Research Laboratories of the Hewlett-Packard Company working on a variety of projects including analytic instrumentation, electron beam lithography, and instrumentation architectures. When Hewlett-Packard split in 1999 he joined the Central Research Laboratory of Agilent Technologies. He retired in 2009. He is currently a visiting scholar in the Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems at the University of California at Berkeley. For the past 15 years his work has centered on instrument system architectures and infrastructure. He was heavily involved in the IEEE 1451.2 and IEEE 1451.1 standards and is an active participant in the LXI Consortium. He is the chairperson of the IEEE 1588 standards committee. He is a life fellow of the IEEE, a recipient of the 2007 Technical Award of the IEEE I&M Society, and a co-recipient of the 2007 Agilent Laboratories Barney Oliver Award for Innovation.

Noise affects most devices. Designing adequate shielding does not have to be a black art – in fact, it should not be. Some basic understanding and applying appropriate principles will eliminate most problems. The tutorial first describes the various mechanisms of noise – understanding them will give you immediate insight into avoiding noise problems. Next it covers issues in grounding. Finally, it provides basic design tips and techniques to diagnose problems and select the appropriate shielding.

Kim Fowler has spent 27 years in the design, development, and project management of medical, military, and satellite equipment. He co-founded Stimsoft, a medical products company, in 1998 and sold it in 2003, and has worked for JHU/APL and Ixthos. Kim currently consults in technical development for both commercial companies and government agencies; his focus is on engineering processes in designing and developing products and systems. Kim is the Executive Vice President of the IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society for 2009. He spent 9 years as Editor-In-Chief of the award-winning IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement magazine and writes the “Tried and True” column. Kim is an adjunct professor for the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Professional Program and lectures internationally on systems engineering and developing real-time embedded. Kim has written, “Electronic Instrument Design: Architecting for the Life Cycle,” (1996, Oxford University Press) and “What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Real-Time Embedded Products,” (2008, CRC Press). He is currently editing a large reference handbook for Elsevier Science Newnes titled, "Reference Handbook for Developing Mission-Assurance and Safety-Critical Systems." He has published over 50 articles in engineering journals and proceedings, has 17 patents - granted, pending, or disclosed.

This tutorial gives a short presentation of the measurement concept. It starts from the analysis of the different possible measurement applications and their impact on the everyday life. To prove that measurements have always been a great part of the social life, it offers a short historical digression showing that some of the modern metrology needs were well understood at the time of the Roman Empire, and shows how the concept of measurement standards has evolved along time. At last, it shows the impact of measurements on today life, providing also an economical estimate of the overall measurement cost and presents the fundamental issue of today metrology: the expression and evaluation of measurement uncertainty.

Alessandro Ferrero was born in Milan, Italy, in 1954. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1978. In 1983, he joined the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, as an Assistant Professor of electrical measurements. From 1987 to 1991, he was with the University of Catania, Catania, Italy, as an Associate Professor of measurements on electrical machines and plants. From 1991 to 1994, he was with the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, as an Associate Professor of electrical measurements, where he has been a Full Professor of electrical and electronic measurements since 1994. His current research interests include the analysis of new mathematical methods to the expression of uncertainty in measurement, the application of digital methods to electrical measurements and measurements on electric power systems under non-sinusoidal conditions. Prof. Ferrero is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the Italian Association of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (AEIT) and the Italian Association for Industrial Automation (ANIPLA). He chaired the Italian Association for Electrical and Electronic Measurements (GMEE) for the three-year term 2004–2007 and he has been the President of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurements Society for the 2008 – 2009 term. He is the recipient of the 2006 Joseph F. Keithley IEEE Field Award for Instrumentation and Measurement.

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is an optical technique that allows investigating tissue hemodynamics in-vivo and non-invasively by measuring optical absorption properties of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin using near infrared light (650-1000 nm). Since its introduction more than forty years ago, NIRS has seen a tremendous research growth due to its unique combination of performance, portability and reduced cost in comparison to other imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET). Importantly, NIRS has also been adopted in the clinical setting as a reliable technique for monitoring cerebral oxygenation in critical care, and many other scientific and clinical applications are rapidly developing. This tutorial introduces the basic principles of NIRS and briefly describes some of the most relevant applications in the field.

Luca Pollonini holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (2000) and a Ph.D. in Information Engineering (2004) from the University of Brescia (Italy) and he is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Technology at the University of Houston, TX, USA where he directs the Optical BioImaging Lab. Dr. Pollonini is also the Co-PI of the NSF I/UCRC BRAIN (Building Reliable Advances in Neurotechnology) at the University of Houston. Prior to his current position, he held research appointments at NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH and UT Health Science Center in Houston, TX. Before and during his research career, he also co-founded the academic spin-offs Nirox (2005) and LVL Technologies (2013). As of today, Dr. Pollonini has 21 journal publications, 42 peer-reviewed proceedings publications, 3 issued patents and 2 pending patents. He is an IEEE Senior Member and serves as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine and as a Communication Committee member of the Society for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (SfNIRS).

Product design requires tradeoffs in many different areas: - Circuit design - Cooling - Power - Software - Buy vs. build - Manufacturing - Diagnostics, repair, and maintenance This tutorial introduces some design tradeoffs that you will need to consider during development of hi-tech products; actually it is more like a “key hole” view of how some products come to market. It will focus on 11 case studies and how they made these design tradeoffs. This will hopefully give you a deeper appreciation and understanding how you might go about designing and developing products.

Kim Fowler has spent 27 years in the design, development, and project management of medical, military, and satellite equipment. He co-founded Stimsoft, a medical products company, in 1998 and sold it in 2003, and has worked for JHU/APL and Ixthos. Kim currently consults in technical development for both commercial companies and government agencies; his focus is on engineering processes in designing and developing products and systems. Kim is the Executive Vice President of the IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society for 2009. He spent 9 years as Editor-In-Chief of the award-winning IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement magazine and writes the “Tried and True” column. Kim is an adjunct professor for the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Professional Program and lectures internationally on systems engineering and developing real-time embedded. Kim has written, “Electronic Instrument Design: Architecting for the Life Cycle,” (1996, Oxford University Press) and “What Every Engineer Should Know About Developing Real-Time Embedded Products,” (2008, CRC Press). He is currently editing a large reference handbook for Elsevier Science Newnes titled, "Reference Handbook for Developing Mission-Assurance and Safety-Critical Systems." He has published over 50 articles in engineering journals and proceedings, has 17 patents - granted, pending, or disclosed.

This tutorial surveys sensor technologies and sensing systems for currently perceived security applications. Since its content is based entirely on information available in the open literature, it is possible that one or more important but still-secret approaches are not covered. It begins by considering high-level categories: sensors for things and "stuff" vs. sensors for people. In the sensors for "stuff" category bulk -- mostly physical -- and vapor -- mostly chemical -- techniques are surveyed. The best-known "airport security" techniques are examined: several x-ray methods, microwave back scattering, and neutron activation in the physical category, and ion mobility spectrometry in the chemical category. Several distinctions are made for sensing people: finding, identifying, and verifying their claimed identities. Identification and verification techniques surveyed include face, hand, ear, finger, iris, retina, and vein-based systems.People-finding techniques surveyed include thermal imaging and, evaluating it as an anticipated future technology, terahertz radiation imaging.

Mel Siegel did his undergraduate work at Cornell University and his graduate work in experimental physics at JILA, University of Colorado – Boulder. He is currently a faculty member in the Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, where he is the founding director of the Sensors, Measurement, and Control Lab. His previous employment includes service in the US Peace Corps teaching physics and mathematics in Ghana, a post-doc at the University of Virginia, a professorship at the State University of New York - Buffalo, and a foray into industry with the specialty mass spectrometer system manufacturer Extrel, where he directed research, development, and applications. At the Robotics Institute he and his students and colleagues conduct research at all levels of sensor and measurement science, from devices to instruments to systems to innovative sensor fusion software. His interest in the human-machine interaction aspect of robotics led also to several patents in the field of three dimensional display systems. Recently he has been delving into theoretical aspects of robotics, including mechanical, energy storage, and communication scaling issues, their consequences for large networks of small robots, and potential applications of quantum computing in robotics. In addition to teaching courses in sensing and sensors regularly and in electromechanical systems occasionally, he runs a master of science in robotics technology (MS-RT) program with a sustainable-development-oriented distance education component. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, an Associate Editor of its Transactions on Instrumentation & Measurement, and has served on the AdCom and as Treasurer of its Instrumentation and Measurements Society.

The tutorial introduces the main concepts of standardization to understand what is a standard and how it can be defined. In order to understand how standards are delivered, the existing standardization levels as well as the ideal and actual standardization processes are discussed, too.

Pasquale Daponte.

This video tutorial analyzes strain gauges and their main parameters along the required signal conditioning. Some mathematical models are analyzed to identify the dependence of influencing quantities (temp, strain, etc..) on geometrical parameters. The video also includes a brief overview of the main materials used and their advantages and drawbacks. At the end, an experimental test is performed.

Ruben Crispino received his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and the Master’s degree in Automation Engineering and Control of Complex Systems from the University of Catania in 2016 and 2017, respectively. He is now a Ph.D. student at the same university. His research interests include advanced multisensory architecture for ambient-assisted living and fluxgate magnetometer.

This tutorial covers the most fundamental issue of measurements: how can we assess how good the results of our measurements are? To do so, the tutorial presents a model of the measurement process and identifies the main sources of inaccuracy and discusses their effects on the final result, proving that expressing any measurement result with a single number and a measurement unit is meaningless. The tutorial discusses the ways for assessing how good a measurement result is and shows why the old, traditional concept of measurement error is inadequate and should be abandoned. It defines and discusses the modern uncertainty concept and gives an overview of the possible ways it can be evaluated, according to the recommendations of the IEC-ISO Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM). A few practical examples are provided. At last, the limitation of the GUM approach is shortly discussed.

Alessandro Ferrero was born in Milan, Italy, in 1954. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1978. In 1983, he joined the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, as an Assistant Professor of electrical measurements. From 1987 to 1991, he was with the University of Catania, Catania, Italy, as an Associate Professor of measurements on electrical machines and plants. From 1991 to 1994, he was with the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, as an Associate Professor of electrical measurements, where he has been a Full Professor of electrical and electronic measurements since 1994. His current research interests include the analysis of new mathematical methods to the expression of uncertainty in measurement, the application of digital methods to electrical measurements and measurements on electric power systems under non-sinusoidal conditions. Prof. Ferrero is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the Italian Association of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (AEIT) and the Italian Association for Industrial Automation (ANIPLA). He chaired the Italian Association for Electrical and Electronic Measurements (GMEE) for the three-year term 2004–2007 and he has been the President of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurements Society for the 2008 – 2009 term. He is the recipient of the 2006 Joseph F. Keithley IEEE Field Award for Instrumentation and Measurement.

In this tutorial we provide an introduction to physical sources of random noise and some of the history of random noise. Then we consider ways of using random noise to measure physical constants; ways of using random noise to measure circuit parameters; and ways of using random noise to encrypt data. Finally we consider a method of using pseudo-random noise to measure circuit parameters and to encode data.

Shlomo Engelberg graduated from the Cooper Union with B.E.E. and M.E.E. degrees in electrical engineering and from New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences with a Ph.D. in mathematics. He came to the Jerusalem College of Technology's department of electronics in 1997. He is an associate professor in and chairman of the department. Shlomo is the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Magazine.

In outdoor applications, wireless sensor networks must be rugged and resistant to degradation from fouling, moisture, and human interference. Ease-of-use is important for setup by users of widely varying technical backgrounds working under extreme conditions. The data should be traceable to its originator, and should be made available in a format compatible with online collections for use by the largest number of researchers. This tutorial will cover strategies for sensor protection, plug-and-play sensor setup, and data extraction. The goal is to give insights from practical experience, and to make connections between cutting-edge research and real-world environmental sensing needs.

Cindy Harnett researches micro- and nanomaterial-based environmental sensors at the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY USA. More information on these and related projects is available at www.ece.louisville.edu/c0harn01. This research encompasses nanomaterial characterization, integration of the materials with electronics using microfabrication, and interfacing the devices with wireless sensor networks.