Research Platform to Promote the Evolution of STEM Project Experiences

This paper discusses the setup of the research platform to engage middle and high school students, undergraduate and graduate engineering students in STEM project experiences which evolve from the basic to the advanced according to the STEM preparation of the student in each category. The research platform comprises wireless sensor nodes which are configured to record radio frequency signals within a grid or network of nodes. Radio frequency signals are used to perform non-invasive and device-free target localization of objects or entities in space. Radio tomographic imaging uses wireless sensor networks to form images from the attenuation of the radio frequency signals. The system is comprised of three subsystems the wireless sensor network, the command and data collection platform, and the user interface. STEM project activities are identified on the proposed research platform at different levels of complexity, specific to the category of students assigned to work on the platform.