Nirupama Bulusu

My broad research interests lie in the areas of mobile and pervasive computing, cybersecurity, applied machine learning and Internet markets. My research program is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative. Please see papers and talks for more details.

I currently work on:

• Block-Supply Chain: A New Anti-Counterfeiting Supply Chain using NFC and Blockchain (see GameSec '18 and CryBlock '18)

• Infrastructure-based Indoor Positioning Systems (see Percom '19)

• Networked UAVs (see DroNet '21)

• Digital City Testbed Center

My past work includes:

• Mobile crowdsourcing applied to
  • environmental sensing and urban planning (e.g. noise pollution mapping)
  • commerce (e.g. monitoring consumer price dispersion) and
  • personalized healthcare and wellness.

• Trustworthy Mobile Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science
  • Vision: Towards Trustworthy Participatory Sensing
  • Privacy-preserving Crowdsensing with Integrity Guarantees (SecureComm '11) and
  • Secure Tasking and Aggregation Protocol (ACM TECS '14).

• Applied machine learning for the Internet of Things (IoT)
  • tracking freshwater plumes in the Columbia River Estuary
  • monitoring invasive cane-toad populations in Australia
  • anticipating client movements and forecasting client demand in retail environments and airports.

• Network localization

• Distributed Smart Camera Networks (e.g.3D camera network localization)

• Ultra Low Power Wireless Sensor Networks
  • network optimization
  • data dissemination protocols
  • distributed data compression
  • medium access control
  • data modeling and
  • code consistency maintenance protocols (e.g. DHV, available as part of TinyOS).

Digital City Testbed Center

Portland State invests $3 million to research homelessness, 'smart cities', The Oregonian, Oct 1^st, 2018.


Homelessness, 'smart cities' research centers announced at Portland State University, EdScoop, Oct 8^th, 2018.


Portland State University Launches Centers To Address Homelessness And Smart Cities, Forbes, Oct 7^th, 2018.

EarPhone: Crowd-sourced Noise Pollution Mapping

Quiet Is Crucial to Your Health: The Dangers of Urban Noise , Huffington Post, September 18^th, 2015.


App to check noise pollution, Deccan Chronicle, November 7^th, 2013.


Indian-origin scientist develops crowdsourcing app to monitor noise pollution, India TV News, November 6^th, 2013.


Indian-origin scientist develops crowdsourcing app to monitor noise pollution, NDTV Gadgets, November 6^th, 2013.


Smartphones to help fight stress from noise , ABC Science News, November 1^st, 2013.


Ear-Phone: cartographier la pollution sonore grace aux (French) , Futura Sciences, October 28^th, 2013.


Russian media coverage.


Noise Pollution Maps Crowdsourced from Smartphone Data , Communications of the ACM, October 25^th, 2013.


Noise Pollution Maps from Smartphone Data , Informed Infrastructure, October 24^th, 2013.


Research sees smartphones collect data to map noise pollution , ITPro Portal, October 24^th, 2013.


Noise Pollution Mapped by Data Collected on Smartphones , Wired UK, October 23^rd, 2013.


Noise Pollution Maps Crowdsourced from Smartphone Data , MIT Technology Review, October 22^nd, 2013.


Noise Pollution Maps Crowdsourced from Smartphone Data , atelier t*h, October 22^nd, 2013.


CS: Ear-Phone, Sparse NARMA Identification, High-quality Quantum Imaging, some blog news and more , March 11^th, 2010.

Monitoring Cane Toads

New networks take nature's pulse , Christian Science Monitor, January 23^rd, 2009.


CS: CS in Finance and in the Oil Business, Toad Classification and Some Seminars , November 14^th, 2008.

Hybrid Wireless Sensor Network for Cane-Toad Monitoring, Memsic blog, September 18^th, 2007.

Tracking cane toads from the sofa, ABC Science Online, July 12^th, 2005.

MCECS Professor earns NSF CAREER award, Feb 19^th, 2008.

Sensor Networks Education

Computer Science professor receives grant to increase access to emerging field, Lewis and Clark Newsroom, July 21^st, 2009.

Jens Mache and Nirupama Bulusu receive grant to advance computer science education, ACM TechNews, October 18^th, 2007. Details on Lewis and Clark media page here.

Grace Hopper 2006 Conference Report, Usenix ;login magazine, February 2007, reviews a talk I gave on sensor networks.