Pratt Secures DURIP Equipment Award
June 8, 2012The Department of Defense (DoD) announced on Tuesday, May 8, plans to award $54.7 million to academic institutions to support the purchase of state-of-the-art research equipment. The 190 awards to 100 academic institutions are being made under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) that augments current university capabilities or develops new university capabilities to perform cutting-edge defense research. Dr. Thomas Pratt was awarded $257,670 by the Office of Naval Research for his proposed “Radio-Frequency Emulation System for Study of Power-Efficient Communications” project. Pratt has requested funds for a 4×4 MIMO RF channel emulation system. The system is to be utilized in communications power efficiency studies for the Navy to evaluate the relative power consumption reductions that might accrue with use of space-polarization
multiple-input multiple-output (SP-MIMO) communications for expeditionary forces. The requested equipment will substantially upgrade present MIMO hardware capabilities at Notre Dame.
About the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program:These planned awards are the result of a merit competition for DURIP funding conducted by the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Each office requested proposals from university investigators conducting science and engineering research of importance to DoD. This includes research underpinning advances in surface chemistry and physics, computing and networks, electronics and electro optics, neuroscience, fluid dynamics and propulsion, robotics and autonomous systems, and ocean, environmental, and biological science and engineering. The research offices collectively received more than 700 proposals requesting $226 million in support for research equipment. All awards are subject to the successful completion of negotiations between DoD research offices and the academic institutions. The list of winning proposals can be found through the Department of Defense.