The Latest News from NSF spectrumx
News
Stay updated with the latest developments in research and innovation. From groundbreaking scientific discoveries to research-focused headlines, our news section keeps you informed on stories that matter.
During the summer of 2022, SpectrumX along with its partners at its member institution the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) conducted a six-week virtual professional development program for ten middle and high school teachers. The educators were selected from across the United States through a competitive application process. The participants were chosen based on their experience creating original lessons and interest in incorporating more electromagnetic spectrum curricula into their classes.
Interference conflicts are ongoing challenges within the radio spectrum field. Within the U.S. spectrum ecosystem, commercial wireless networks for communication, internet access, scientific sensing for both environment and radio astronomy, broadcast, radar, position/navigation/timing, and more create a sometimes crowded atmosphere where signals compete.
In October, Admiral Christopher W. Grady, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined faculty members at the University of Notre Dame for an update on the University’s research activities. Admiral Grady, a 1984 graduate of Notre Dame, is also a past recipient of the University’s Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Award for distinguished military service.
SpectrumX is pleased to be able to offer educational opportunities for undergraduate students.
While they may have only had a few games on the field, researchers from both universities have long worked together in the lab — studying chronic disease and children’s health, exploring planet formation and building autonomous machines.
The SpectrumX leadership team invites expressions of interest from faculty members to design and develop courseware for one of three proposed online courses for publication on the Coursera platform. SpectrumX is launching a multi-course specialization (tentatively titled Spectrum Innovation) at the early graduate level in order to attract professionals to the field, upskill current practitioners, and support the broader educational goals of our grant and 29 institutional partners.
The SpectrumX Center Meeting on October 3 and 4, held at the University of Virginia (UVA), brought together over 65 learners and leaders for cross-cutting discussions on timely and interdisciplinary topics. “The meeting provided an opportunity for students, researchers, stakeholders, and professionals in policy making to come together at UVA to discuss some of the most important subjects in our field,” said Bobby Weikle, SpectrumX Steering Committee Chair and Radio and Network Technologies Research Lead, and Professor at the University of Virginia. “UVA has a long history of collaboration with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and it was a
On Thursday, September 30, SpectrumX Center Director Nick Laneman gave a keynote address at GRCon 22 in Washington D.C. Laneman concurrently co-directs the Wireless Institute in the College of Engineering and is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. GNU Radio is “a free and open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios,” according to its website. It is utilized by researchers, industry, government, hobbyist, and academic stakeholders alike.
SpectrumX, a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Innovation Center, will host its next semi-annual center meeting on October 3 and 4, 2022. The event will bring together the center’s members and partners, including faculty and student researchers, industry collaborators, and government agency representatives, in a hybrid meeting format with in-person attendees enjoying the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. The center launched in September 2021 with a $25 million grant from the NSF Spectrum Innovation Initiative, and its members have been working hard to execute on plans and realize its vision as the world’s largest academic hub in the
On Saturday, September 17, 2022, Pedro Bustamante, former SpectrumX member and postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh, and current Assistant Teaching Professor at the Information and Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was awarded the first prize of the student paper competition at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) 2022.
The recent research paper entitled “Spectrum Sovereignty on Tribal Lands: Assessing the Digital Reservations Act” was published on August 1, 2022. The Federal Communications Commission currently governs the electromagnetic spectrum on sovereign tribal lands. As a result, tribal governments are unable to self-manage and self-govern spectrum on their lands perpetuating the digital divide and a source of lost revenue.
ATIS’ Next G Alliance today announced the formation of the Next G Alliance (NGA) Research Council and publication of its 6G Research Priorities. These actions are the first steps in aligning the future vision for 6G in North America with the research that will drive wireless leadership over the next decade.
Madeline Pooler, an undergraduate student dual enrolled at Saint Mary’s College in computing and applied mathematics, and at the University of Notre Dame in computer science, took part in a 10-week summer program called Advanced Wireless Research Experiences (AWaRE) through the Wireless Institute at the University of Notre Dame. The Wireless Institute is co-directed by the director of SpectrumX, Nick Laneman, who served as Pooler’s faculty mentor.
SpectrumX Director and Notre Dame Wireless Institute Co-Director Nick Laneman was quoted in this story regarding how the Citywide Classroom South Bend (CCSB) partnered with the Wireless Institute and the Notre Dame Office of Information Technologies to lead the way piloting a private LTE network which can reach 1,000 families. The access will be broadcast from three towers. In 2012, enFocus grew out of Notre Dame's Engineering, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Master's program (ESTEEM). Fellows work as nonprofit consultants on tech projects in the local community.
The recent research paper entitled “Spectrum Rights in Outer Space: Interference Management for Mega-constellations” was published on August 2, 2022. In this work, the authors examine the governance of non-Geostationary communication satellites (NGSOs) and propose alternative spectrum sharing approaches.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Tuesday, August 2, that the two agencies will be increasing their coordination on spectrum management efforts. Monisha Ghosh, SpectrumX Policy Outreach Director, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and former Chief Technology Officer at the FCC, and Janice Obuchowski, SpectrumX External Advisory Board member, President and Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Technologies, and former Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, within the Department of Commerce, NTIA, offered their comments.
The National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) is pleased to announce the Women in Spectrum Scholarship program. NSC intends to name at least 5 Spectrum Scholars during the inaugural year of this program (2022-2023). With this program, the NSC is hoping to further develop the pipeline of talented women engineers entering fields related to spectrum and communications.
A recent article published in the technology magazine IEEE Spectrum focused on the clash of U.S. billionaires over spectrum resources. The article, “SpaceX and Dish’s super-shady war for the world, or, why three billionaires are girding for battle over spectrum supremacy – why it matters,” was published on July 15, 2022.
Embodying SpectrumX’s mission of fostering a broad spectrum community, three former undergraduate students at SpectrumX Member Institutions are now pursuing spectrum-related graduate degrees. All three have chosen a different institution for their graduate studies, with all institutions involved in the Center.
Nick Laneman, center director of SpectrumX, the National Science Foundation Spectrum Innovation Center, and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame; and William Webb, external advisory board member of SpectrumX and chief technology officer of Access Partnership, were consulted by Mitch Leslie on a recent paper in ScienceDirect.