Center for Advanced Radio Sciences and Engineering

The Center for Advanced Radio Sciences and Engineering established in this award will enable the development of integrated tools to resolve spectrum sharing and coexistence issues, and improve performance on radio science observations through an innovation and collaboration ecosystem designed to elevate the science and engineering capacity at University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM), Arecibo Observatory (AO), and Puerto Rico in general. The center will explore new concepts in radio astronomy, atmospheric sciences, spectrum monitoring and radio frequency interference mitigation, with a focus on scientific observations.

The Center will improve the research competitiveness of the Puerto Rico engineering and academic communities, training a new generation of students via hands-on experience with leading-edge research infrastructure and internships. The creation of this center will foster new collaborations between AO, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), industry, and the Puerto Rico academic community, which will both enrich radio sciences and engineering and position Puerto Rico students and scientists to participate strongly in future radio sciences projects.

This project is jointly funded by the Division of Astronomical Sciences, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

UPRM formed a collaboration with industry and with AO via its managing organization, the University of Central Florida (UCF), to create the Center for Advanced Radio Sciences and Engineering. This Center provides support to maintain and grow the local scientific and engineering capacity. The Center will enable the development of integrated tools to resolve spectrum sharing and coexistence issues, and improve performance on radio science observations.

The Center’s specific goals include the development of enabling technologies in radio frequencies, microwave, and millimeter-wave antennas and systems, electronics and embedded systems, and digital signal processing algorithms, together with crosscutting applied sciences research activities in atmospheric sciences and radio astronomy. Tools envisioned for development consist of spectrum monitoring and radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation systems; interference robust scientific receivers; small size, low weight, low power and low-cost scientific receivers and monitoring systems; and adaptable transmitters with reduced out-of-band emissions.

The Center includes industry partnerships to develop RFI mitigation solutions. A primary focus is to create new partnerships between academia and industry for the development of the diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce required to plan, design, prototype, construct, commission and operate the next generation of radio astronomy instruments. Center activities will enhance engineering, radio astronomy, atmospheric science and high-throughput computing research infrastructure at UPRM and at Puerto Rico institutions more broadly, including new faculty lines, support for postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, and cross-institutional research support.

Education, Outreach, Workforce, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion activities will be developed in partnership with the UPRM Centro Universitario para el Acceso, and the NRAO Radio Astronomy Data Imaging and Analysis Lab Project.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.