Professor Ruzena Bajcsy

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

As Director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), Dr. Bajcsy incorporates the mission of CITRIS ("pervasive, secure, energy-efficient, and disaster-proof information systems, delivering new kinds of vital data that people put to use quickly...") with the needs of the elderly. Her research focuses on providing electronic means to monitor elderly individuals so that they can remain efficient in their home environment. This sensory system is called Societal-scale Information Systems (SISs). The type of SIS Dr. Bajcsy is developing must easily and naturally integrate devices, ranging from tiny sensors and actuators to hand-held information appliances, workstations, and room-sized cluster supercomputers. Such devices must be connected by short-range wireless networks as well as by very high-bandwidth, long-haul optical backbones. Data and services must be secure, reliable, and high-performance, even if part of the system is down, disconnected, under repair, or under attack. The SIS must configure, install, diagnose, maintain, and improve itself -- this applies especially to the vast numbers of sensors that will be cheap, widely dispersed, and difficult to access. Finally, the SIS must allow vast quantities of data to be easily and reliably accessed, manipulated, disseminated, and used in a customized fashion by users, from expert to novice, and from all walks of life. Once perfected, the SIS for the elderly will decrease the need for transfer to a nursing home and will allow for more independent living.