Array of Things

CTL-E-6378 · Institution · other · 2012–2021

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07564 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6378.

Array of Things (AoT) was an experimental urban-sensing project led by Charlie Catlett, built on the Waggle edge-computing platform developed at Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with the University of Chicago and the City of Chicago and funded primarily by the National Science Foundation. Its programmable nodes, mounted mainly on traffic-signal poles, measured temperature, air quality, noise, vibration, light and pedestrian and vehicle activity, publishing data openly for research and public use — a “fitness tracker for the city.” About 130 nodes were operating in Chicago by late 2019. All original nodes were retired in place in September 2021, some after more than four years, beyond their two-year design life. The team pursued successors including SAGE, a software-defined sensor network, and the Eclipse bus-shelter air-sensor test.

The record

• Also known as: AoT

Notes

TYPING FLAG: the Array of Things is more precisely a research project/programme than an institution; Institution/other is the closest legal home and is flagged for the founder (the schema defines no Project type). ERA: conceived 2012 (per the project symposium marking the ten-year anniversary of its inception, January 2022); nodes installed from 2016; original nodes retired September 2021. GRADE BASIS: Verified — project-primary sources for all core claims plus independent trade-press corroboration. EDGE NOTE: operated_by → CTL-E-0345 (University of Chicago) is staged as the schema's closest legal predicate for the sourced partnership (partnered_with cannot target an Institution) and is flagged Provisional for that reason. Argonne National Laboratory and the City of Chicago as a partner entity are not homed as institutions, so no edges to them are staged. PHOTO: HELD (see media). CURATOR'S JUDGMENT (DRAFT): AoT is the optimistic twin of EB-32/33 — same poles, same city, opposite data ethic: open by default. The graph needs the contrast. (Draft judgment, not fact.)

Relationships

• Chicago — located in
  The Array of Things nodes were mounted on streetlight poles across Chicago, per the project site and Argonne; the City of Chicago is live record CTL-E-1475.
• University of Chicago — operated by
  The Array of Things project site documents the project as a partnership including the University of Chicago (its Mansueto Institute is listed among the project's team partners), and StateScoop corroborates the 2016 launch as an Argonne/UChicago joint project; the University of Chicago is live record CTL-E-0345. PREDICATE FLAG: operated_by is the schema's closest legal predicate for the sourced partnership (partnered_with cannot target an Institution) — flagged Provisional and for the founder's review at merge.

Sources

• “All of the original AoT nodes were retired in place in September 2021, having exceeded their 2-year design lifetime in some cases having operated for over four years.” Accessed 2026-10-29. (primary source · build store)
• “The project was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and by late 2019 roughly 130 nodes were operating throughout the city”; “100 nodes were installed in 2018. In early 2019… the total number of sites grew to 130”; “The Array of Things project is led by Charlie Catlett.” Accessed 2026-10-29. (primary source · build store)
• “The array launched in 2016 as a joint project between the Argonne lab and the University of Chicago, funded mostly by a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation… Catlett has led the placement of roughly 130 sensors.” Accessed 2026-10-29. (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6378 · Combined Graph record U-07564 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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