By Christina Clark
During the week of July 10, 2023, faculty and researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) hosted participants from five continents for the United States Telecommunication Training Institute (USTTI). Each day of the five-day course focused on a new topic: trends and impact in telecommunications, spectrum management and radio frequency technology, law and regulatory aspects around the globe, technology and innovations, and participant case study presentations.
The week’s course, “Managing Effectively in the Changing Telecommunications Environment,” was led by Gabor Molnar, associate professor adjunct, with the ATLAS Institute, Silicon Flatirons fellow at CU Boulder, and by Dale Hatfield, SpectrumX research partner, executive fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at CU Boulder. Scott Palo, SpectrumX associate director and professor at CU Boulder, and Keith Gremban, SpectrumX PT-Data lead and professor at CU Boulder, also led portions of the program, including tours of the CU Boulder Aerospace and Engineering laboratories.
“My objective was to connect various aspects of telecommunications within the week. It’s quite a challenge to cover the broad array of subjects for our participants, so we try to cover technology, regulation, economics, and a bit of everything,” said Molnar, who has been a part of the USTTI program since 2015, in his first guest lecture to participants.
The experience allows professionals from all around the world to learn about U.S. telecommunications research and contemporary practices while acquiring knowledge and new ideas when they complete the course. Molnar said that since the program involves participants from diverse experiences and backgrounds, the discussions enrich and broaden learning for everyone in attendance.
“It is at the same time intimidating and thrilling the amount of innovative ideas, powerful insights and enriched experiences you get yourself exposed to at this course,” said USTTI participant Gustavo Montes, from Mexico.
The faculty and researchers who led the USTTI course said they also learned from the participants, whose diverse experiences and backgrounds helped to expand their understanding and thinking.
“The speakers not only shared their experiences and suggestions, but were open to view different perspectives and lenses from us,” said Frida Inchoga, a participant from Kenya.
CU Boulder and USTTI’s partnership began when Hatfield taught individual courses for USTTI on Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) with a focus on radio spectrum management. In 2007, Ambassador Mickey Gardner, the founder of USTTI, approached Hatfield to organize a course on telecommunications management at CU Boulder.
USTTI has graduated more than 10,000 women and men in 172 developing countries since its founding in 1982. The program partners with just under 50 organizations, corporations, and departments in the U.S. Federal government to connect participants to the leading edge of research and practice in telecommunications.
Learn more about USTTI here: https://ustti.org/
About SpectrumX
SpectrumX is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its Spectrum Innovation Initiative, under grant number AST 21-32700. SpectrumX is the world’s largest academic hub where all radio spectrum stakeholders can innovate, collaborate, and contribute to maximizing social welfare of this precious resource.
To learn more about SpectrumX, please visit spectrumx.org.
Contact:
Christina Clark, Research Communications Specialist
SpectrumX / Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame
cclark26@nd.edu / 574.631.2665
spectrumx.org
