On the battlefield of the future, small sensors may be dropped from aircraft on places where it is too dangerous or impractical to send soldiers. Once on the ground, the sophisticated detectors will activate themselves within seconds and establish a wireless network to connect to other nearby devices and a central command computer.
Mike DeRosa '03 is developing such a wireless network with a grant from the College's Institute for Security Technology Studies and the U.S. Department of Defense. His job, as he described it, is to "play tricks with the hardware to reduce the energy consumption of the device."
Armed with a fund of $8,000 for hardware -- with which he purchased a laptop computer specifically for the project -- and a monthly stipend of $800 lasting through Summer term, DeRosa is using the technical knowledge he gained as a computer science major to create a program that uses the least battery power possible.
To do this, he must maximize the efficiency of the computer chip, transceiver and battery constraints. Since the processor uses less energy than the transceiver, he will design software that compresses data with the chip so that less time is spent sending and receiving information.
"He's very excited about this project. He's been working really hard, " said Michael Ferrantino '03, DeRosa's roommate at Sigma Nu fraternity.
"Senior fall, I intend to write this up and present this as a senior thesis project," DeRosa said.
He was inspired to do the research by a science fiction novel. Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" describes the use of "smart dust," small machines that observe all people at all times in an Orwellian world.
In addition to his computer science work, DeRosa is working toward minors in both engineering and Japanese. He went to Japan for foreign study.
Scott Mollett '03 remembers that during the trip, DeRosa spent considerable time pursuing his interests in Japanese culture by visiting specialty stores to purchase jewelry and paintings.
An active member at Sigma Nu, DeRosa also plays kazoo for the marching band and is currently taking a snowboarding class. In his spare time, he said he crafts jewelry for his girlfriend at Tufts.
DeRosa's diverse talents don't go unnoticed. Computer science professor Thomas Cormen, who taught DeRosa two years ago, worked on a small skit with him to be performed in front the CS 23 class last week. "I thought of Mike as perfect for the role this year," Cormen said.
After graduating next year, DeRosa hopes to attend graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from there continue work in the computer industry.
DeRosa began working with computers when his parents bought a Macintosh when he was four years old. He started programming when he was in seventh grade, allowing him to take advanced computer science courses when he was a freshman at Dartmouth.
DeRosa spent a considerable portion of his life outside of the nation before Dartmouth. Though he was born in Florida, he grew up in Venezuela, and he spent a year each in Ghana and Texas before attending Strath Haven High School in Wallingford, Pa.
