The U.S. Department of Defense has announced the selection of a collaborative team of American and Finnish academic researchers to explore fundamental questions that could lead to groundbreaking developments in future communication systems.
The project, ‘Self-Programmable Metasurface Networks for Wireless Communications and IoT (Internet of Things),’ has been awarded through the Bilateral Academic Research Initiative (BARI). It will be led by Professor Andrea Alu from the City University of New York and Professor Sergei Tretyakov from Aalto University in Finland. The research team also includes experts from Northeastern University in Boston, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Helsinki.
The BARI programme facilitates collaboration between academic teams from the United States and partner nations, enabling them to combine their unique expertise and resources to pursue high-risk, fundamental research. Over the course of the four-year US-Finland project, the American research team will receive up to $4 million in funding from the Basic Research Office within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, while the Finnish team will receive up to €3 million (approximately $3.3 million) from the Research Council of Finland.
“The BARI program showcases the remarkable potential of international collaboration. By combining the diverse perspectives and expertise of leading scientists from the U.S. and Finland, this initiative will drive important advancements in scientific fields of mutual interest to both nations,” said Dr. Bindu Nair, Director for basic research at R&E.
“It is wonderful that our first bilateral joint call with the U.S. Department of Defense has proven to be a great success, enabling cutting-edge collaborative research efforts where teams from Finland and the United States combine unique expertise to provide rapid advances in fundamental science,” added Professor Paula Eerola, President of the Research Council of Finland.
Jointly sponsored by the OUSD(R&E) Basic Research Office and the Research Council of Finland, this project aims to investigate materials and devices, network science, embedded intelligence, and human interactions, potentially leading to transformative advancements in communication technologies.
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