ECE alumnus Catlett leads implementation of Chicago's Array of Things project

Chicago is implementing a revolutionary modular sensor system in the city, and ECE ILLINOIS alumnus Charlie Catlett (BSCompE ’83) is leading the charge.

As reported in USA Today, the Array of Things project is a joint effort by the city and Catlett’s research team at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. The goal is to have the devices, which are attached to street lights, track noise levels, air quality, and traffic throughout Chicago.

The city plans to distribute all the data collected form the devices online to give residents real-time information on the city’s traffic and pollution levels.

Catlett said that the idea has already garnered enough attention that other cities are already looking at ways to implement a similar system.

“There are a ton of hit-and-miss experiments being done in cities around the world, but they are not being measured,” Catlett told the USA Today. “We’re not able to take a success in Chicago and say this is why it succeeds, and this is how you can adapt that to Denver or Los Angeles or New Orleans. I want to see this project help city designers and planners navigate better.”

Catlett also responded to any privacy concerns residents may have about the data collected by the devices. He assured citizens that any photos taken by the devices would be deleted as soon as the data it gathers is downloaded into the system, which only takes a few minutes.

“We are not handling anything that’s that sensitive, but we are sensitive to the impressions,” Catlett said. “We wanted to make sure that we’re doing a project that people in Chicago can be excited about and not worried about.”

Learn more in the original article.