This funding establishes a new Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site at Purdue University Calumet. Undergraduate students recruited from across the nation will participate in summer research projects focused on sustainable wireless communications. The research involves exploration of topics related to the almost pervasive use of devices such as smart phones and tablets that rely on wireless networks to communicate. The increasing use of these devices and applications is outstripping the capacity of the underlying network infrastructures. To accommodate the rising demand for ubiquitous high-speed data, researchers will need to design sustainable wireless networks that can function in the presence of the many challenges raised by the nature of wireless communications. This REU experience should help develop a group of computing professionals who can develop future communication systems that will be reliable, efficient, and sustainable.
The research projects span a variety of topics under the umbrella of sustainable wireless communications including spectrum-efficient wireless communication by means of reflected power, energy-efficient data dissemination in wireless sensor networks, adaptive backbone-based routing in delay tolerant wireless networks, adaptive network recovery from excessive network failure, and sustainable networks under intentional attacks. The program will target students from under-represented minorities and students from institutions that do not offer Ph.D degrees. The host institution, Purdue University Calumet, is a predominantly undergraduate institution with many students in the target group. Through hands-on projects and experiments, the program will provide students with an authentic environment to investigate effective solutions to real-world problems involving wireless communication technologies. The research activities coupled with other professional development opportunities all help achieve the project goal of inspiring students to pursue advance educational opportunities and professional careers in computer and information science.
