Dr. Christian Claudel wants to build systems that will have an immediate impact on society. As a systems engineer at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, he has pinpointed two societal issues to tackle - traffic congestion and flash flood monitoring.

 Traffic congestion is a problem in most areas of the world, and traffic control is one of the most promising ways of addressing traffic congestion, since it does not require building additional roads. However, traffic control requires accurate traffic flow maps, and precise demand forecasts on the road network. The new traffic sensing systems Dr. Claudel is developing could feed input data to traffic control systems such as smart traffic lights, ramp metering or variable speed limit control, thereby creating better traffic flow and safer driving conditions.

With respect to flash floods, currently available systems simply cannot efficiently monitor these events. Fixed sensor networks are too expensive to deploy over large areas and maintain. Satellite-based systems, such as synthetic aperture radars, lack the resolution to monitor floods. By using UAV-based systems (unmanned aerial vehicles) or drones with Lagrangian microsensors, Dr. Claudel sees possible sensing solutions that are economically viable, and can be available on-demand, over extended areas.

• Dr. Claudel's general area of expertise is Lagrangian sensing systems, that is, mobile systems, applied to distributed parameter systems monitoring. His objective is to build Lagrangian sensor systems for monitoring physical phenomena at a large scale. 
   
• Uniquely, Dr. Claudel's vision would be to realize the "smartdust" vision of Chris Pister et al. (early 2000s), which has not been implemented to date for the proposed applications - traffic and flash floods. Unlike most existing systems which rely on a small number of expensive sensors, he wants to rely instead on very large numbers of cheap sensors.
   
• He proposes a new type of traffic sensing system based on a combination of wireless sensor networks and low-cost mobile sensors onboard vehicles. The future of traffic sensing is pro data, in other words the drivers create the data. Unlike current GPS systems which are sent over mobile phones and affect the driver's privacy, his system uses short range communications. His measurements do not give away user information, locations, etc., instead the information is processed through a network and traffic maps are produced  by the sensor network itself, creating a more efficient system where the data is useable by everyone.
   
• Dr. Claudel has built low-cost sensor prototypes that would be installed in all new cars and retrofitted to older cars. These will be connected to the network, work directly with traffic maps, and monitor road flow.
   
• To monitor flash floods, Dr. Claudel proposes using UAVs to monitor, track and identify the severity of possible flash floods. These drones would track the conditions, estimate the flooding potential and like a weather forecast system predict future expectations. They will also provide more accurate communications to people living in flash flood danger zones, enabling them to prepare for minor disruptions or catastrophic disasters.
   
• Unlike current flood preparations monitors, Dr. Claudel's system will provide more accurate prediction tools to predict the severity of expected floods.

     Traffic congestion is due to a lack of infrastructure. To solve the problem cities must build bigger roads; change the supply and demand of the roads, or manipulate traffic control. Traffic control is the easiest solution but traffic control needs accurate data. By creating a network of data with dedicated systems in place, a new, reliable infrastructure will emerge resulting in safer roadways.

     In 2009, flash floods caused a catastrophic disaster to the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia killing hundreds and destroying the city. It was considered the worst flood in 27 years and took most of the city by surprise because there were no communications in effect to make the city aware of the impending disaster. Dr. Claudel's UAVs will be able to track conditions and provide accurate information to city officials and residents giving them time to prepare.