Innovating@Sun  

Yggdrasil in Norse Mythology refers to The World Tree, an enormous arbor that connects many different worlds together, serving as the cohesive and central element of the universe. In the Sun Labs, Project Yggdrasil--with its roots in SunSPOT projects--is under way to develop a flexible data collection framework that connects a multitude of embedded devices to each other and to a relational database for greater collection, visualization, analysis, and sharing of the data and, notably, the metadata that the nodes produce. The Yggdrasil data collection framework has enormous potential in the area of scientific research and Arshan Poursohi, Sun Researcher, and the Yggdrasil team seek to revolutionize current research methods by making it easier for scientists to create applications that can harvest sensor data over extended periods of time and subsequently provide enhanced access to the data to be collated or interpreted in further empirical studies, something not easily achieved using current state-of-the-art technology.

Listen as host Hal Stern, SVP Global Systems Engineering, interviews Arshan to discuss how the project got started, its applications, and how Project Yggdrasil is being used today. Specific topics include: