In the latest of CSIC's monthly Smart Infrastructure Blogs, Dr Miguel Bravo Haro, CSIC Research Associate, brings focus to sensors, measurement and particularly to conventions.

Reflecting on a number of 18th Century explanations of what took place during an earthquake and tsunami in Lisbon in 1755, Dr Bravo Haro tracks the early development of data science. He writes: “The accelerating advancement of modern science has been powered in part by the development of sensors that have enabled scientists and technicians to verify observations or measurements to support their theories.”

Highlighting the need for convention as a consequence of being able to measure the world around us – “we measure to understand and interpret, rarely alone but exchanging and sharing observations and measures with our peers. In this process of communication, the choice of convention is vital” – the blog considers the process of establishing convention: “The choice of convention is not a capricious imposition, but a race for efficiency, simplicity and practicality.”

Bringing attention to what can go wrong when conventions are ignored or muddled, Dr Bravo Haro uses lost communication during the 1999 NASA and Mars Climate Orbiter project as calamitous example: “The NASA investigation that followed revealed that one of the engineering teams had applied the traditional American units, while another had used metric units, resulting in a trajectory error of 60 miles – or 95.6 kilometres.”

The blog concludes by reflecting on the work of CSIC and its part “in the race for the choice of conventions, for setting standards and protocols based on the best-tested procedures, methodologies and technologies which will hopefully become the pervasive language in this field”.

Read the full blog by Dr Miguel Bravo Haro.

• The informative and thought-provoking monthly blogs are written by members of the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) team, partners and industry experts to showcase opinions and ideas from the forefront of smart infrastructure and construction. 

• See https://www-smartinfrastructure.eng.cam.ac.uk/

• Through the University of Cambridge, The Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) is an active member of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) and is hosted in The UKCRIC National Research Facility for Infrastructure Sensing (NRFIS).