Business Opportunity
The University of Texas at Dallas is a research-oriented university with 32,000 students. Their campus is located on 500 acres in Richardson, Texas.
Technical Challenge
They needed a reliable network that could support multiple large-scale research applications at one time.
Solution
We designed and deployed a campus-level LoRaWAN network that supports both the research needs and the functional needs of the university. But the “research” portion of that is the most important part. The significance of using LoRaWAN is that it can handle a high number of devices in a concentrated area, and every device can connect to a single gateway without the connection suffering like WiFi and cellular do in similar instances.
Impact
We created a LoRaWAN ecosystem which allows custom applications to be added over time, across the entire campus, with the ability to support applications such as the monitoring of laboratory equipment, tracking on-campus transportation and assets, and the monitoring of the indoor and outdoor air quality. One of the first projects deployed was air quality monitoring with the MINTS project, which uses AI to provide more accurate data using a network of inexpensive sensors. The air quality project came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore viral pathogens are being closely monitored as well.