SpectrumX hosts center-wide meeting at CU Boulder
By Christina Clark
On June 16 and 17, 2022, SpectrumX, the first U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Innovation Center, held its inaugural center-wide meeting at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The review meeting gave each working group and project team the opportunity to share updates and obtain feedback on their collaborative efforts. Presentations were given on the center’s numerous priorities, including policy outreach, broadening participation, education and workforce development, and research in such areas as use cases and coexistence, economics and policy research, radio and networking technologies, and data and machine learning.
“Coordination and collaboration are imperative to SpectrumX’s mission to help maximize the societal benefits of the many applications of the radio spectrum,” said Nick Laneman, the Center’s Founding Director, Co-Director of the Wireless Institute in the College of Engineering, and professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. “Periodically gathering the center’s members, industry and government collaborators, advisors, and other stakeholders in meetings like this one allows us to review progress and foster discussions that keep our projects and working groups moving forward.”
The meeting attracted just under 100 participants as a whole, with some in-person and others virtual. Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars joined the meeting for the first time, with plans to grow their attendance, presentations, and networking opportunities going forward. The meeting’s location in Boulder, Colorado, allowed additional in-person attendees from local industry and government agencies, including representatives from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“Since NCAR has the legacy of designing remote sensing instruments that mature to operational instruments, our engineers have to understand spectrum issues and how to avoid radio frequency interference at the design stage,” said Jothiram Vivekanandan, Senior Scientist at NCAR’s Earth Observing Lab. “It was helpful to attend [the] meeting at CU Boulder.”
Reflecting on the meeting, Scott Palo, Associate Director of SpectrumX and Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at University of Colorado Boulder, said, “We have brought together a great team and set of collaborators, all coming from different perspectives and disciplines, to build a truly inclusive and balanced center. I think for everyone involved that has been really beneficial, and we are very pleased to have hosted this meeting at CU Boulder.”
About SpectrumX
Founded in September 2021, with a 5-year, $25 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), SpectrumX’s mission is to pursue interdisciplinary research, education and workforce development, collaboration, and policy outreach. SpectrumX is funded by the NSF as part of its Spectrum Innovation Initiative, under grant number AST 21-32700. Its participating research institutions include the University at Albany, Agnes Scott College, Clemson University, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Olin College of Engineering, MIT Haystack Observatory, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, New Mexico Tech, Northwestern University, Norfolk State University, New York University, University of Pittsburgh, Spelman College, Stanford University, Texas Tech University, University of California-Santa Cruz, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Notre Dame, University of the Virgin Islands, South Carolina State University, University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez Campus, University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Virginia, the University of the West Indies, Virginia Diodes, Inc., and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
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
