A South African University needs partners for ICT 39 - 2015: International partnership building in low and middle income countries proposal.
The University of Pretoria (South Africa) is looking for partners from universities, research institutions and centers for development and industrial companies to be part of their ICT-39 proposal for design, development and implementation of water management systems based on sensor technologies. This project intends to measure physicochemical water parameters that can be reliably monitored with low cost sensors and develop low cost networked embedded systems. For this purpose, development of low cost sensor nodes for real time and in-pipe monitoring and assessment of water quality is expected.
The technical challenge is to develop a flow, temperature, conductivity and pH sensor from first principles. The accuracy and complexity of the different types of sensors will have to be investigated to ensure that the best choice is made. Some water parameters are dependent on one another, for example: electrical conductivity is temperature dependent. Another challenge will be the designing of algorithms for processing the sensor data.
The following skills will be required to perform different phases on the proposed project:
- Design and development of advanced sensors technologies;
- Development of wireless communications;
- Good knowledge of hardware components development such as microcontrollerfor measurements;
- Software development;
- Mechanical engineering and mechatronic skills in development of pH sensors.
