Teaching the Geoweb: Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research in Wireless Sensor Networks, Web Mapping, and Geospatial Data Management

This article addresses an effort to incorporate wireless sensor networks and the emerging tools of the Geoweb into undergraduate teaching and research at a small liberal arts college. The primary goal of the research was to identify the hardware, software, and skill sets needed to deploy a local sensor network, collect data, and transmit that data over the Internet in a format that could be viewed and analyzed by an end user. A second goal of the project was to identify new skills and technologies that could be incorporated into existing GIS and computer science courses in order to better prepare students for the changing landscape of the Geoweb.