Pedro Wightman - Fulbright NEXUS Scholar
Home Country: Colombia
Grant Dates: 2012/2013
Dr. Pedro Wightman is an assistant professor at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia. He graduated with honors from his bachelor's in Systems Engineering from the same institution. He worked as an instructor and researcher for a year, before being accepted to the Professor Formation Program at Uninorte, which allowed him to go to the University of South Florida to obtain his master's and doctoral degrees in Computer Science and Engineering, in 2007 and 2012, respectively, under the guidance of Dr. Miguel Labrador. His main research topics are Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks, more specifically in energy-efficient protocols for topology construction and maintenance, and Location-based Information Systems, with an emphasis in implementation of LBISs in open source platforms and lately, location privacy preserving techniques. These research interests are directly related to the project proposed to the NEXUS program, in the topic of sustainability.
The project he proposes for NEXUS is to build a mobile low-cost monitoring infrastructure for air pollution and traffic mobility. Air quality is a very critical issue nowadays due to several factors: environmental issues, in which combustion gasses contribute to increase the carbon footprint of the human civilization in the planet with no completely clear effects on the environment, and public health due to the exposition of people to these gases. On the other hand, in urban communities, the increasing amount of cars in the road infrastructure produces collapse of the traffic mobility, especially during peak hours. These problems in mobility also have an impact on the air quality in the areas of high traffic. The project intends to provide a flexible monitoring platform that can help address both problems, either in individual and correlated ways, and provide a way to evaluate city planning decisions for the local government. The impact that this research project is expected to have in the local community and other cities that could replicate the same process is one of the main reasons with Dr. Wightman wanted to participate in this program. In addition, the possibility to work with high quality researchers from Latin America and North America is a great way to establish research networks, enriched by the experience and different perspectives from other scholars in this NEXUS program.