News

ROME, N.Y. — The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) has awarded ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC a $750,000, 24-month direct-to-phase-II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract.

The pact seeks to develop jammer-resistant, wireless-communication capabilities for the Air Force. The novel capability called ADJUST – Adaptive and Dynamic Jammer nUlling System with multi-resolution Transform domains — will be used to adaptively detect and suppress the effect of jammers that can impact or compromise various radio-frequency (RF) communication signals and associated spectrum bands.

ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Innovation Lab, will lead the work, headed up by Jithin Jagannath principal investigator, lab director, and chief scientist, in cooperation with a research team that includes Keyvan Ramezanpour, Anu Jagannath, and Justin Henny.

“We have all seen even in the most recent events how hostile jamming is a constant challenge to RF systems,” Jagannath said in a news release. “These challenges are further exacerbated in satellite communication and navigation systems where the high sensitivity of the receiver is critical. We have an excellent team tackling this challenge head on with a unique approach.”

The opportunity further accelerates the pace of the lab’s current research in advancing jammer-resilient technologies for wireless communications, ANDRO President Andrew Drozd noted, and may lead to phase III opportunities to transition the capability to the warfighter and potential commercial applications.

Established in 1994, ANDRO focuses on scientific research, development, and the application of advanced computer software for radio-frequency-spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, cognitive radios, advanced-radar data fusion, sensor-resource management, computational electromagnetics, and cosite modeling and simulation.

Read the full article here: CNY Business Journal

Dr. Jithin Jagannath, Chief Scientist of Technology at ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC and Director of the Marconi-Rosenblatt AI/ML Innovation Lab will be a panelist at the upcoming IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference to be held 8-11 January 2023 in Las Vegas, NV. Held in conjunction with the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest tradeshow on consumer technology, the IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC) is a major annual international conference organized with the objective of bringing together researchers, developers, and practitioners from academia and industry working in all areas of consumer communications and networking.

The panel will take place Tuesday, January 10 and will focus on the Role of Machine Learning in Next Generation Wireless Networks. Traditional communication and networked systems have been developed from mathematical models of the wireless channel and optimizing the network based on the model. Modern Machine Learning is fast changing this approach from theoretical models to data-driven models in every aspect of communication and networking. This panel is going to address how machine learning can help to transform the design of next generation wireless communication networks. The experts in this domain will discuss their vision for unifying different approaches in each layer of the network towards an intelligent future network. The speakers will also discuss the efforts required to make these models practical, implementable and reliable.

Dr. Jagannath is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He received his Ph.D. degree from Northeastern University. Dr. Jagannath heads several of the ANDRO’s research and development projects in the field of 5G and beyond, machine learning for wireless, advanced signal intelligence, Internet-of-Things, and UAV automation. These projects are sponsored by several customers including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. SOCOM, DHS, and AFSOR. Dr. Jagannath has been invited to give various talks including Keynotes on the topic of machine learning and Beyond 5G wireless communication. He is an IEEE Senior member and serves as an IEEE SPS Applied Signal Processing Systems Technical Committee member. Dr. Jagannath was the recipient of 2021 IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation Award with the citation, “For innovative contributions in machine learning techniques for the wireless domain”. He is also the recipient of the AFCEA International Meritorious Rising Star Award for achievement in Engineering and AFCEA 40 Under 40. Dr. Jagannath’s recent research has led to 14 patents (granted and pending) and over 40 peer-reviewed publications which include the recipient of best paper award.

For more information, visit 2023 IEEE CCNC | IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (ieee-ccnc.org)

ROME — The U.S. Navy has awarded ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract valued at $240,000 to develop a new type of autonomous capability for uncrewed air system applications called Robust Autonomy for NeGation of Enemy Radar (RANGER).

The work will be performed by ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) Innovation Lab team in Rome led by Jithin Jagannath.

The team will apply novel AI/ML techniques for enhancing human-machine teaming based on the Manned-UnManned Teaming (MUM-T) model first developed by ANDRO for cooperative UAS scenarios to combat next-generation radar systems and adversarial radar networks. The ANDRO lab team includes engineers Sean Furman and Tyler Gwin, who will deploy RANGER on UAS hardware as the capability matures.

According to Jagannath, RANGER is envisioned to provide superior battlefield agility for collaborative UAS in MUM-T scenarios for increased mission efficiency and survivability by adapting negation techniques on-the-fly in response to enemy actions.

ANDRO President Andrew Drozd explained that the importance of a human-machine teaming is driven by the need to migrate from a UAS platform that is strictly controlled by a human operator who must orchestrate its flight to effectively achieve a particular mission objective ­­­­­­— representing a “human-in-the-loop” approach.

Rather, Jagannath and his team are focused on an end-to-end, human-on-the-loop framework that leverages specialized machine learning techniques to provide autonomy, adaptability, and highly effective human-machine teaming performance based on experiments recently conducted at the lab to demonstrate the capability.

“The RANGER technology sits at the intersection of ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Lab expertise in UAS autonomy, machine learning-enabled signal intelligence (SIGINT), and cooperative control and decision-making strategies,” said Jagannath. “The AI/ML lab team sees RANGER as the next-generation autonomous MUM-T planning and coordination system that will be engineered for operation in dynamic and austere application environments.”

The Phase I work sets the stage for a potential second-phase multimillion dollar research effort for additional development, experimentation, and flight testing for future transition to the Navy. Drozd said he anticipates considerable growth in business arising from this work to incorporate the solution into advanced UAS platforms during the next phases of advanced research and development.

“RANGER is a next step in a strategic plan to expand ANDRO’s research portfolio and footprint in 2023 and beyond, including the research activities of the Marconi-Rosenblatt AI/ML Innovation Lab,” said Drozd.

ANDRO is a privately owned company established in 1994 focused on scientific research, development, and the application of advanced computer software in the domains of radio frequency spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, cognitive radios, advanced radar data fusion, and sensor resource management.

Read the full story here: ANDRO receives Navy contract | Daily Sentinel (romesentinel.com)

ROME, N.Y. — The U.S. Navy has awarded ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC a phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract valued at $240,000 to develop a new type of autonomous capability for uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) applications. 

ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) Innovation Lab team in Rome, led by Jithin Jagannath, will perform work on the Robust Autonomy for NeGation of Enemy Radar, or RANGER for short.

The team will apply novel AI/ML techniquest for enhancing human-machine teaming based on the manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) model ANDRO first developed for cooperative UAS scenarios to combat next-generation radar systems and adversarial radar networks.

RANGER’s goal is to provide superior battlefield agility in MUM-T scenarios for increased mission efficiency and survivability by adapting negation techniques on the fly in response to enemy actions.

“The RANGER technology sits at the intersection of ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Lab expertise in UAS autonomy, machine learning-enabled signal intelligence (SIGINT), and cooperative control and decision-making strategies,” Jagannath said in a press release. “The AI/ML lab team sees RANGER as the next-generation autonomous MUM-T planning and coordination system that will be engineered for operations in dynamic and austere application environments.”

The Phase I work sets the stage for potential second-phase, multi-million-dollar research for additional development, experimentation, and flight testing for future transition to the Navy. The ANDRO lab team includes engineers Sean Furman and Tyler Gwin who will deploy RANGER on UAS hardware as the capability matures.

ANDRO President Andrew Drozd anticipates considerable growth in business from this work to incorporate the solution into advanced UAS platforms during the next phases of research and development.

“RANGER is a next step in a strategic plan to expand ANDRO’s research portfolio and footprint in 2023 and beyond, including the research activities of the Marconi-Rosenblatt AI/ML Innovation Lab,” he said.

Founded in 1994, ANDRO focuses on scientific research, development, and the application of advanced computer software in radio-frequency spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, cognitive radios, advanced-radar data fusion, and sensor-resource management.

Read the full story here: Central New York Business Journal

ROME — ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC of Rome was awarded a two-year, $1.25 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) to enhance the capabilities of wireless Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) device networks.

ATAK is a widely-used, feature-driven Android smartphone app that provides for military geospatial intelligence, precision targeting, navigation, data sharing and situational awareness. The SBIR contract is a Direct-to-Phase-II award that accelerates the further development, maturation, and transition of an existing technology, called PRISMTech, commercially developed by ANDRO. The new TAK plug-in is called PRISMTAK.

The TAK plug-in is part of a larger TAK family of products used by military intelligence tacticians and civilian emergency managers. ANDRO’s upgrades will specifically enable ATAK devices unprecedented mission-driven, on-demand tactical edge (also called “fog”) networking performance to enhance device-to-device connectivity, data exchanges, and situational awareness anytime and anyplace.

The work is being performed at ANDRO’s in-house software defined radio lab and is being supported by Raytheon BBN of Cambridge, Mass. and OmniMesh, Inc. of Syracuse, both subcontractors to ANDRO under the effort. PRISMTAK leverages the Omnimesh Technology Product (OTP) to solve disconnected ATAK user issues to improve situational awareness and real-time decision-making at the tactical edge.

“ANDRO is compelled by the forecasted growth of the commercial TAK user market to commit to launching a PRISMTAK Innovation Center dedicated to servicing future TAK customers and the TAK ecosystem at large,” said Dr. Andrew Drozd, president of ANDRO. “The contract will propel innovations across the TAK user domains to support military applications, including civilian emergency management and first responders. This will be accomplished by enhancing situational awareness and rapid decision-making using a device-to-device approach coupled with implementing new dynamic spectrum access and decentralized architecture paradigms.”

According to the ANDRO research team, PRISMTAK will provide disconnected ATAK operators and users with reliable and persistent access to the most critical data, regardless of where it is hosted or stored.

“The technology has implications for improving the efficacy of moving data ‘in the field’ for multiple purposes, from Cursor-on-Target to Map Imagery all with low latency,” said ANDRO Chief Information Engineer Timothy Woods, adding that such concepts have yet to be materially realized at the tactical edge. Drozd pointed out that civilian first responders and law enforcers also suffer from a loss of situational awareness when operating in challenging environments, highlighting the broad applicability of PRISMTAK for civilian use.

ANDRO provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries in the areas of advanced spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, software-based waveform development, cognitive software defined radio networking, multisensor data fusion, and sensor resource management. For more information on ANDRO including job placements, visit www.androcs.com.

Read the full story here Daily Sentinel

ROME, N.Y. — The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) has awarded a two-year, $1.25 million Small Business Innovation research (SBIR) contract to ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC.

ANDRO will use the grant to enhance the capabilities of wireless Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) device networks.

ATAK is a widely used, feature-driven Android smartphone app that provides for military geospatial intelligence, precision targeting, navigation, data sharing, and situational awareness. The contract accelerates the further development, maturation, and transition of an existing technology called PRISMTech, commercially developed by ANDRO. The new plug-in is called PRISMTak.

The upgrades will enable ATAK devices with mission-driven, on-demand tactical edge (also called “fog”) networking performance to enhance connectivity between devices, data exchanges, and situational awareness.

The company is performing the work at its in-house software-defined radio lab with support from subcontractors Raytheon BBN of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and OmniMesh, Inc. of Syracuse.

“The contract will propel innovations across the TAK user domains to support military applications, including civilian emergency management and first responders,” company President Andrew Drozd said in a news release announcing the grant.

Timothy Woods, head of ANDRO’s PRISMTak Innovation Center, is leading the project with research teams lead by Chris Maracchion and Sean Furman.

“AFRL recognizes that the warfighter network is a power projection platform,” Woods said. “A forward operator drops a pin on a map, and a commander makes life-or-death decisions based on that information, so if data transfers are slow or lost because of bottlenecks that exist, grim outcomes can arise. Our work paves the way for new fog computing in the battlespace where high levels of information and data transport security must be ‘baked’ into a resilient cloud-native scalable network while maintaining quality of service.”

PRISMTak will provide disconnected ATAK operators and users with reliable and persistent access to the most critical data, regardless of where it is hosted or stored, ANDRO said.

ANDRO provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries in the areas of advanced spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, software-based waveform development, cognitive-software-defined radio networking, multisensor-data fusions, and sensor-resource management.

Read the full story from the Central New York Business Journal here

BOSTON, Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University is pleased to announce the creation of Open6G, a new US Department of Defense (DoD) supported industry-university cooperative research center focused on future open, programmable, and disaggregated 6G systems. Open6G is led by an anchor award under the auspices of the Innovate Beyond 5G thrust within the 5G-to-xG Initiative, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) (OUSD(R&E)). The technical effort will be housed at Northeastern University’s Institute for Wireless Internet of Things.  Industry partners and collaborators of the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) who are active in the wireless, defense, computing, and manufacturing industries include A5G Networks, AiRANACULUS, AMD, ANDRO Computational Solutions, AT&T, Bionet Sonar, Dell Technologies, InterDigital, Keysight Technologies, MathWorks, Mavenir, MITRE, Nexcepta, NI (formerly National Instruments), NVIDIA, Qualcomm Inc., Raytheon Technologies, Red Hat, US Ignite, and VIAVI.

Northeastern University’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things Launches Open6G Research and Development Center

The new Open6G facility will occupy approximately 4600 square feet of prime space at the Innovation Campus in Burlington, MA, and will be co-located with Colosseum, the world’s largest radio frequency channel emulator enabling the building and testing of intelligent, autonomous, collaborative, wireless technologies for military and commercial use; a massive AI computing capability; and one of the world’s largest anechoic chambers.

Open6G‘s overarching goal is to create a Federal-Industry-University cooperative research, development, testing, and commercialization hub to jumpstart beyond-5G systems research. It will explore themes such as future spectrum access and exploitation, performance of Open RAN architectures, AI/ML for inference and control, mmWave and Terahertz systems, Digital Twins, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and Web 3.0, among others. Open6G will provide testbed-as-a-service capabilities to its partners through state-of-the-art infrastructure spanning unique test facilities including Colosseum, Arena, XMili, and Teranova. Open6G will develop a common reference architecture and open source software for B5G/6G based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards and O-RAN specifications, via public releases of the OpenAirInterface Software Alliance (OSA) stack.

Open6G will be supported by an array of state-of-the-art facilities and resources within Northeastern’s College of Engineering: 
Colosseum is the world’s largest emulator of virtualized wireless systems. Its massive computing resources (CPU, GPU, FPGA) empower WIoT to research, develop, and test systems like 5G, O-RAN, AI, Spectrum, IoT, or drones. AI-Jump Start Rack’s unique AI+wireless experimental facilities can perform large-scale training of RF datasets collected on Colosseum, real-time, AI-driven signal processing, and model-free adaptation and network control, which allows WIoT to extend Colosseum’s AI capabilities. Arena is an open-access indoor wireless testing platform that can provide a real-time real-channel evaluation platform with fully synchronized testbed and can perform repeatable, flexible, and scalable high-fi indoor experiments. XMili (mmWave) is the largest mmWave testbed available in the nation; Teranova is the first testbed enabling transmissions above 1 THz (or true terahertz), and ultrabroadband real time signal processing. WIoT is home to one of 4 Nationwide FCC Innovation Zones, located at Northeastern University’s main campus in Boston, MA, and Innovation Campus in Burlington, MA. WIoT’s FCC Innovation zone caters to a wide range of frequencies and is the first and only Innovation Zone to support frequencies in the ranges of: 71-86 GHz, 122.5-140 GHz, 209-225 GHz, 232-235 GHz, 238-250 GHz, and 1-1.05 THz. RFData Factory is a one-stop resource for wireless dataset generation, curation, and sharing.

“Open6G will offer the expertise of Northeastern faculty, researchers, and students to create partnerships that will shape the future of our connected world”, says Prof. Tommaso Melodia, Director of Northeastern University’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, and Director of Research for the PAWR Project Office. “We will work with our partners in academia, industry, and government to consolidate the role of Open6G as a leading national resource for next generation wireless systems, their applications, and their societal impact.”

Dr. Sumit Roy, Program Director for Innovate Beyond 5G at OUSD(R&E), stated, “DoD cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and rely purely on commercial industry to develop B5G capabilities; it must invest in open standards based system integration test labs aligned with DoD applications. The Open6G Center will accelerate core beyond-5G protocol stack components that serve both DoD and commercial wireless requirements and applications. The 6G oriented research, development, test & evaluation infrastructure developed by Open6G with Federal and Industry partner support will constitute a key element of North American leadership in future “Next G” technologies”.

For more information on Open6G, please visit: www.open6g.us

About the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University.

The Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) at Northeastern University is an interdisciplinary research center, a think tank, and a technology incubator promoting advancement in the areas of connected systems and their societal applications and implications. WIoT conducts cutting-edge research, develops new cross-disciplinary educational models, and new technologies for networked systems at the intersection between the physical and the digital worlds and on their legal, economic, ethical, and policy implications. WIoT is home to leading national programs such as the NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research, 5G/6G R&D Centers, AI for wireless systems, and future spectrum exploitation. The Open6G project is managed by the Kostas Research Institute through a cooperative agreement with the Army Research Laboratory.

For more information on the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, please visit: https://www.northeastern.edu/wiot

805 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA 02120
(617) 373 – 4897
wiot@northeastern.edu

Read the full story here: Northeastern University’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) launches OUSD(R&E) Funded Open6G Cooperative Research and Development Center (yahoo.com)