Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT)

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

IIP-1134736 University of Virginia Horowitz This is a proposal to renew the University of Virginia's participation in the Wireless Internet Center for Advance Technology (WICAT). The multi-university center consists of New York Polytechnic, Virginia Tech, Auburn University, and the University of Texas-Austin. WICAT, with Polytechnic as the lead institution, has approximately 25 companies and 8 federal and state agencies as industry associates. The Center research addresses cooperative communications and networking; extending battery life of portable terminals; and wireless applications and associated information delivery. Finding new and better ways to meet the demands on wireless networks will continue to be the goal of research being carried out in WICAT overall. The UVA WICAT research activity addresses adaptive wireless system design patterns and corresponding technology developments that serve to enable improved designs. The proposed research effort will make important contributions to the future development of adaptive wireless surveillance systems, wireless networking systems, and telehealth systems. The concurrent engineering approach of carrying out component technology research that is based on needs that emerge from system application research provides an important basis for directing and managing the proposed efforts. Based on historical work, both industry and the broader wireless research community find UVAs coupling of system needs to technology needs to be a useful basis for both directing research and evaluating the benefits of research outcomes. The system-oriented contributions of UVA to WICAT will continue to provide a significant differentiating value to the overall mission of the Center. Multi-university collaborations will continue to provide the other WICAT sites with an expanded set of data and results derived from system-level activities to complement their component technology results. The research collaborations will continue to provide new opportunities to achieve greater diversity by creating student interactions across the research institutions. The educational goals of the center have supported the department's new curriculum which, in turn, serves the industry members well. The site has also supported outreach activities through summer camps. The diversity UVA brings to the center's research agenda has broader impacts on industry and the community, as well.