The U.S. Army Research Office awarded $15 million to Rice University for a five-year research program into secure sensing, imaging, and communications. The funding will support the Center for Large Aperture Secure Sensing, Imaging, and Communications (CLASSIC) (see image above) in search of advanced antenna technologies for wireless electronic systems.

The center will be led by Edward Knightly, the Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. Knightly’s research team will explore the use of extremely large-scale antenna arrays (ELSAAs) and how they can be incorporated into advanced wireless electronic systems for numerous functions, including secure communications.

David Sholl, executive vice president for research at Rice University, noted, “This award demonstrates Rice’s leadership in tackling complex national research challenges through collaboration across disciplines and institutions.”

Rice University Provost, Amy Dittmar, said, “By bringing together leading researchers across institutions and disciplines, the center will lay the groundwork for discoveries that could shape the future of secure communications and sensing.”

And Knightly offered high hopes for the center, “This center gives us the opportunity to develop the science and engineering needed for a new generation of wireless networks with radically new capabilities, resilience, and security.”

Research will focus on ELSAAs, including development of an AI-driven model for applying the antenna systems for threat detection and high-speed wireless communications, maintaining secure communications even in the presence of jamming signals. Test methods will be developed to evaluate experimental wireless technologies developed through computer modeling, with the help of university and professional team members. 

Knightly leads a team of co-principal investigators from Rice; the University of Texas at Austin; Los Alamos National Laboratory; the University of California, Los Angeles; Northeastern University; Brown University; and Duke University. Industry partners include Booz Allen Hamilton, Intel, Keysight, Lockheed Martin, MITRE, Northrop Grumman, Qualcomm, and Raytheon.