Q&A: Kris Pister

The inventor of Smart Dust and a longtime leader in the academic wireless-sensor-networking community, Kris Pister in 2002 co-founded Dust Networks to deliver his vision of a commercially robust wireless-sensor-networking platform. Pister is the chief architect of Dust Networks' patent-pending SmartMesh technology. Previously, he successfully commercialized or licensed micromachine technologies with Tanner Research, OMM Inc, Xactix, and Sony. He holds a doctorate and a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California-Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in science from the University of California-San Diego. Currently on leave as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley-and the father of four brilliant children-he is doing his part to continue the advancement of technology in the next generations.

How do you view the position of RFID and of smart sensors?

RFID has lots of interesting applications. When people think of RFID, they think they know where their stuff is all the time, but all they really know is where it was when they last checked. That may work for FedEx, but not for the "where-is-it-right-now?" questions that many companies have for their critical machinery or perimeter-security systems.

There's a lot of stuff going on in wireless-sensor networks that is headed in that direction, as we drive costs down. There'll be true location capability-not in a decade, not in three months, but perhaps in three years. Our wireless-sensor networks gather information other than location from the physical world. Our networks can sense things, such as temperature, light, motion, and vibration.

For all the sensors out there, the wiring cost is tremendous. Step One: Do them wirelessly. Step Two: costs are down; put in more sensors. Step Three: Now that you have wireless sensors, put them in new places, on things that move around. It's not a killer app, but there will be a lot of happy applications and tremendous return on investment in commercial and industrial settings.

What about the relationship between the university and technology development?

The easiest way to move technology from the university is to find a killer app. But if the story is different-less dramatic-it is much harder to do that.

What is your view on engineering education and students?

I teach graduate and undergraduate courses at Berkeley. Students have a certain lack of "hardware dabbling." It's harder and harder for a kid in high school to play with circuits. But, if they order a [Microchip] PIC-design kit, they get an 8-bit microprocessor and setup for little money, and can do some real work. Otherwise, early on, they are forced to make the jump to abstraction and away from the physical world.

How does the decline of the big corporate R&D labs affect your research?

I always try to work on stuff at least a generation ahead of the labs; that's where the fun is, where people don't think it's possible. I can guess where things are headed, but people in academia can easily fool themselves into solving problems that people don't have.

How do you deal with intellectual property you develop in a public-university setting?

Any time that you have IP and money at stake, people complain. The EE/CS department at Berkeley has a culture of sharing, putting everything in the public domain. We generally don't patent things. There are good arguments for doing this, but there is also a good case to be made for the reverse.

What about working with venture capitalists?

If people had loaned me money with no strings attached, we'd be worse off. I learned a lot of painful lessons.

What changes would you like to see in engineering education?

I would like to see some more basic, early experiments in engineering. We shove students through a lot of math, basic physics, and similar before they get to do fun experiments. I'd like to run a course based on a book called something like "Dangerous Experiments in Electricity." Doing cool stuff in a controlled environment at the university would be good for them.