"The importance of developing a network sensor technology for
operation in liquid environments has recently been highlighted
in reports detailing the chemical slurry of antibiotics,
estrogen-type hormones, insecticides, nicotine and other
chemicals in the rivers of industrialized countries," says Dr.
Craig A. Grimes, associate professor of electrical engineering
and materials science and engineering. "However, analysis is
still done by physically collecting samples and analyzing them
back in the laboratory." Monitoring of rivers downstream from
sewage treatment plants, large city water supplies, or the
composition of a local pond must all be done by hand. This
expensive, time-consuming and sometimes dangerous practice is
always time delayed and may miss short duration episodes of
pollution or contaminants. Continuous, in-place monitoring would
be the easiest, most timely and least expensive way to track
changes in bodies of water. However, underwater monitoring is
hampered because water interferes with the ra