“Words Fly Through Air:” Notre Dame, SpectrumX’s lead institution, marks the 125th anniversary of the first known wireless transmission in the United States

Christina Clark on April 24, 2024

Every day, people use mobile devices to communicate, stream video, check the weather, navigate, play games, and use thousands of other apps. Only in the most recent decades have these technologies become more accessible. Wireless technology also underlies radio astronomy, satellites, television and radio broadcasting, geolocation and navigational services, and remote sensing.

The original experiments that made the wireless services used every day are not as old as some might think. In fact, it was just 125 years ago that the first known long-range wireless transmission in the United States was made on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

SpectrumX and Wireless Innovation Forum announce new partnership

Christina Clark on April 11, 2024

Today, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Innovation Center, SpectrumX, announces its new partnership with the Wireless Innovation Forum, or WInnForum. Through this partnership, WInnForum has joined NSF SpectrumX’s Collaboration Advisory Board (CAB), through which its leadership will provide industry perspectives on the center’s research, policy outreach, and educational activities. SpectrumX has also joined WInnForum, enabling its researchers from 30 member institutions to  contribute to WInnForum working groups, task groups, and special interest groups.

Spectrum Week is back in 2024: Co-locating six major spectrum events

Christina Clark on March 18, 2024

The second annual U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Week is open for  registration. This year, NSF Spectrum Week will be hosted May 13-17, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia. It will bring together six major spectrum events and create an even bigger opportunity for cross-collaborations than its first year in 2023. The collaborative organizational effort is again being led by SpectrumX, an academic hub where all spectrum innovators come together to innovate, collaborate, and contribute to the advancement of radio spectrum resources and sciences.

NSF SpectrumX members help lead 50th Anniversary USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting

Christina Clark on March 11, 2024

In January 2024, the National Radio Science Meeting celebrated its 50th anniversary. Twelve members of the SpectrumX, the National Science Foundation Spectrum Innovation Center, including two of the center’s students, were in attendance to further national conversations about radio science, telecommunications and electrical engineering.

The meeting, hosted by the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, took place from January 9-12, and resulted in the discussion of 12 research papers co-authored by SpectrumX members.

Founding SpectrumX Broadening Participation Director Promoted at CU Boulder

Christina Clark on December 5, 2023

SpectrumX’s founding Broadening Participation Director, Dr. Tanya Ennis, began her career as an electrical engineer and found her passion opening doors for young engineers through education.

Since March 2022, Ennis has served as both Broadening Participation Director for both SpectrumX and the Research Support Office in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder). As of October 2023, she has been promoted and transitioned to a new role as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Research, Creative Work and Innovation in the Research and Innovation Office at CU Boulder. She will continue to support SpectrumX indirectly through this new role, but has stepped down from her day-to-day responsibilities in the center.

SpectrumX leadership, researchers attend NASEM CORF at CU Boulder to present on center, pressing issues in spectrum policy, security

Christina Clark on November 20, 2023

The University of Colorado Boulder (CU) hosted the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)’s Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) Fall meeting on October 3-4, 2023.  CORF considers the needs for radio frequency requirements and interference protection for scientific and engineering research, coordinates the views of U.S. scientists, and acts as a channel for representing the interests of U.S. scientists.

SpectrumX’s fall meeting introduces new ways to engage with the center’s work

Christina Clark on November 17, 2023

Unveiling comprehensive undergraduate research experience programs, introducing a new board of advisory members, and launching a flagship workshop on crafting comments on policy for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were just some of the top agenda items for attendees of SpectrumX’s Fall 2023 Center meeting. The meeting took place at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, from October 9 and 10, 2023. It brought the multi-institutional center, composed of 27 founding institutions and led by the University of Notre Dame, to the upper midwest to discuss research progress, center initiatives, and more.

SpectrumX research partners, students present research findings at TPRC 51

Christina Clark on November 8, 2023

In September, SpectrumX researchers—along with industry and government representatives—came together at TPRC 51: The 51st Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference in Washington, DC. 

For many of the Center’s spectrum researchers, TPRC is a regular part of their annual calendar.

“TPRC once again provided an exceptional forum to discuss spectrum management. What seemed different – and even better – is that the SpectrumX participation is becoming an annual feature and expectation,” said Ilia Murtazashvili, SpectrumX lead of Project Team Rights (PT-Rights) and professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

SpectrumX sends center comment in response to FCC Notice of Inquiry, as agency strives to understand non-federal spectrum usage

Christina Clark on October 26, 2023

In August, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a special invitation. In a Notice of Inquiry (NOI), it called upon researchers and others to help the FCC use “today’s tools to understand tomorrow’s commercial spectrum usage.”

SpectrumX, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Innovation Center, rose to the occasion. It submitted a center NOI comment with ten contributing authors and eight center endorsers.