UiOHive

What We Do

At UiO Hive, we are a group of scientists and engineers focused at designing and building custom tools to explore nature in new ways. With the advent of Open-Source software and hardware, it becomes easier than ever to build custom made tools. Many technologies such as IoT, databases, and vizualisation are yet to be combined and widely brought to natural sciences, with all challenges involved. While each of these technologies have inherent complexities, their deployement in nordic environments raises a number of challenges for engineers and scientists. UiO Hive is then here to connect people across disciplines, learn from each other, and push the limits of our tools to explore our environment.

Through UiO Hive you will find a community of people around Oslo that have a common motivation to bring technology outside, with the intent to learn more about natural ecosystems. We will offer training for learning these new tools through workshops, and projects integrated to on-going research in hydrology, glaciology, ecology, wireless communication, micro-electronic, and data vizualisation. You will be offered support to build new tools and approaches for sensing the environment.

Much of our newest progress in development is being tested and used at Finse, a high alpine plateau between Oslo and Bergen, to sense river discharge, snow accumulation, and precipitation. You can have a look at current conditions of our network at Finse here[link to dashboard]. The harsh winter climate, rainy summers and complex topography make Finse an ideal place to push our new systems to their limits in terms of power management, wireless communication and sensor design. UiO Research groups LATICE, and ESCYMO are also doing research in Finse provide scientific expertise and context to new technological development.

Explore

Explore the environment in new ways with leading technology.

Design

Design new tools for new approaches to natural sciences.

Make

Build your own tool to explore nature.

Push limits

Deploy new technology in extreme environmental conditions.

News

On-going projects

Temperature profile

Measuring temperature profile in snow, water, and ground. Using digital thermistors, we built chains of sensors that are able to provide temperature at predefined time interval. One is installed in Finse to measure snow temperature gradient and study its impact on snow metamorphism, and another one is keeping track of permafrost temperatures in Jotunheimen mountains.

Sensing from a drone

Small and low power sensor can be mounted on a small consummer grade drone to collect data on the boundary layer such as Methane, air temperature. Here you see the example from such system highlighting a typical atmospheric temperature inversion of the air column.

4D Time-lapse

Taking pictures froma variety of viewpoints, it is possible to reconstruct 3D models using photogrammetric softwares like the open-source project Micmac. We built a custom-made camera system and Python application Photo4D to monitor snow depth or permafrost ground deformation in Slovenian caves.

Compact weather station

With today's advances in small and low power sensor, it becomes either to build compact and low power weather stations. In this project, we are testing a suite of new sensors providing detailed information on atmospheric and radiative conditions, and the evolution of the snow pack. This suite of sensors is also cost effective.

Project Ideas

Inspired by one of these project? Or propose your idea!

GlacierNet

Develop a network protocol for devices distributed in the accumulation zone of a glacier that can measure temperature, water pressure, and - most importantly - that can triangulate their position via a wireless network. Use the network transmission strength to derive ice properties (using a suitable frequency). The similar system could also be applied to rivers on shorter timescales.

Triggered Network

In many instances, measurements at high frequency can inform in great detail about physical processes, but WSNs are not designed to handle large amount of data. This project therefore aims at the design of a WSN that could be triggered at will to record high frequency (10-1000Hz) data in short burst, and then upload the data via the network. An example case could be the recordings of wind measurements, or the drifting of snow across multiple weather stations aligned on a transect.

Network as a sensor

Given the frequency at which WSNs operate, this project will explore the possible use of signal attenuation in between a network of stations to derive air water content. This could be accomplished with a single frequency signal or a variety of radio frequencies. The goal here is to use the wireless sensor network to provide spatial knowledge of air moisture content across the whole network.

Drone data collection

Use a drone to collect data from remote stations. Design a logging station that would be installed in remote location, where the use of a drone could simplify and improve data collection safety. A potential use could be for temperature loggers located in cliff for permafrost research, or hydrological monitoring in the case a logger is place somewhere unaccessible.

Network Topology testing

Using WSN technology outdoor in remote areas is challenging. This project would test a variety of network topologies to find which ones are best suited for geophysics application. Constraints include remote locations, large distances, harsh environment, and low power availability. This project could be linked to the “Network as a Sensor” project too.

Measurement protocols

Given the constraints of a WSN (battery, memory, processing power, transmission bandwidth, etc.), develop measurement protocols (sampling rate, internal averaging, etc.) optimising the trade-offs between the constraints.

A connected tree

develop a network of connected sensors distributed within the canopy of a tree with minimal footprint to record tree motion, temperature, light intensity, etc.

Arduino based IoT logger

develop a data logger based on arduino technology. The logger will integrate a suites of accessories (GPS, SD card, power harvester, RTC, …). The design needs to meet low power usage, and flexibility for a variety of IoT solutions. A collaborative project with the team doing active firmware and hardware development.