NSF CRI/IAD: Programmable and At-Scale Infrastructure for Wireless Access, Mobile Computing, and Health Sensing

Next generation wireless access networks are being deployed in many cities worldwide. Unfortunately, serious barriers remain towards achieving ubiquitous inexpensive access to low-income communities. The Abramson Center for the Future of Health has teamed up with Edward Knightly and Lin Zhong of Rice University, as well as with William Reed and Jim Forrest of the nonprofit organization Technology For All, to deploy an complete and integrated wireless mobile infrastructure for health applications at an urban scale. In doing so, the team will attempt to demonstrate what can be achieved through research advances in wireless access, mobile computing, and health sensing. In addition, leveraging these wireless networks for novel applications such as chronic disease management serves as a testbed for many academic research projects.

Dr. Knightly’s team has established a wireless access infrastructure within the superneighborhood of Pecan Park, an under-resourced and primarily Hispanic area in southeast Houston. Dr. Dacso’s group will examine how patients and communities with chronic diseases can use next-generation wireless networks, cell phones, and health sensors to better manage their health treatment. Over the course of the 5 years of the grant, we will investigate understanding how mobile devices and wireless broadband networks can provide IT access and low-cost, intuitive health monitoring in underserved communities.

To date, a large-scale, multi-tier mesh network has been established over the Pecan Park, serving 4,000 users with throughout the area. In addition, Jerome Crowder, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Houston, has been involved with a cross-cultural analysis of the technological implementations by examining the effects of mobile phones distributed to Pecan Park youth.

The Abramson Center has also been involved in trust building within the Pecan Park community, primarily through the efforts of the PECAN Diabetes Prevention Project. The PECAN Project is using community based participatory research to develop an effective diabetes prevention program that can best serve the needs of Pecan Park residents, and have the greatest chance of long term sustainability.