Four students who participated in the Advanced Wireless Research Experiences (AWaRE) program, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute and SpectrumX, presented research posters on July 26.
Throughout the National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Week event at the end of April, three centers funded by NSF Spectrum Innovation Initiative grants came together to hold meetings and events in the collaborative environment. The opportunity to organize the event was driven by SpectrumX, an NSF Spectrum Innovation Center and the world’s largest academic hub for spectrum innovation. The multi-institutional and multidisciplinary center used the opportunity to meet with other SII funded centers, join discussions and sessions, and include students in these forward-thinking conversations.
The University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center became a national stage to host discussions on the formation of the U.S. National Spectrum Strategy on April 11, 2023. City employees, corporate representatives, trade associations and university researchers gave their input at the second of two National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Listening Sessions.
SpectrumX and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Services (ITS) have formally agreed to work together on the mutually beneficial goals of advancing policy-relevant research and workforce development. The NTIA ITS conducts research in spectrum sciences to advance and satisfy federal policy requirements. Through the collaboration, SpectrumX’s interdisciplinary research, education, and workforce development activities will complement NTIA ITS efforts and pilot new ways that academic institutions can partner with federal agencies going forward. The collaboration is structured through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) signed by NTIA ITS and the University of Notre Dame, lead institution of SpectrumX, representing its current team of 27 universities and 41 researchers.
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.
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 great opportunity to bring their teams and our center together in-person and online.”
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 radio spectrum ecosystem.
Dr. Laneman is Founding Director and currently Co-Director of the Wireless Institute in the College of Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering, Faculty Affiliate of iNDustry Labs; and Fellow of the Pulte Institute for Global Development as well as the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values all at the University of Notre Dame. He joined the faculty in August 2002 shortly after earning a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research and teaching interests are in communications system engineering—blending information theory, signal processing for communications, as well as prototyping and experimental validation—with emphasis on wireless systems.
Laneman is a 2014 IEEE Fellow and received the 2018 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award. In addition to three conference best paper awards, Laneman has received a 2006 Presidential Early-Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and a 2006 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. He has served as General Co-Chair of the 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN), an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, and a Guest Editor for Special Issues of IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. He was also the first Online Editor for the IEEE Information Theory Society and served on its Board of Governors.
Laneman is author or co-author on over 145 publications, including 46 journal articles and invited book chapters, and has been recognized by Thomson Reuters as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher (2010, 2015). He is co-inventor on eight U.S. patents and has several patents pending. He currently advises two Ph.D. students; twelve Ph.D. degrees, thirteen M.S. degrees, and one B.S. honors degree have been earned under his supervision. All of these research efforts have been supported in part by over $14M in funding, with Laneman serving as principal investigator on just over $5M.
