ECE researchers selected for new NSF-funded intelligent network systems program

The U.S. National Science Foundation has selected a project led by Feng Ye, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for its first NSF Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (NSF VINES) program.

VINES is investing $110 million in 49 teams that will conduct fundamental research and development of technologies that transform performance and capabilities of next-generation (NextG) advanced wireless communication systems.

ECE Associate Professor Joshua San Miguel will serve as co-PI on the project titled “Seeing the Channel: Optimizing Perception-aware Environments for XR.”

Extended reality (XR) is a broad term that includes augmented, virtual and mixed reality. While these technologies do exist, current Wi-Fi and 5G systems are not designed to fully support them, limiting their usefulness and development. That has hampered their adoption in various fields, including smart manufacturing, healthcare, education and public-safety training.

In their VINES project, Ye, San Miguel and their collaborators plan to develop an artificial intelligence-native, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) framework for next-generation XR networking. The central idea is the use of a Radio Radiance Field, a vision-aligned channel abstraction that will combine radio measurements with on-device perception to infer predictive channel priors in dynamic environments. These priors will drive software-defined network control functions for beamforming, scheduling, handover, and edge-assisted adaptation through Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN)-compliant xApps and rApps.

The goal is to develop XR networks that can reliably and safely power next generation technologies, like remote surgery or disaster response. The team hopes that their project will result in software modules, datasets, evaluation methods and design principles for applying AI-native and ISAC-enabled control to XR and other perception-driven NextG wireless systems.

NSF VINES is a partnership with several major industry organizations and U.S. federal agencies, including Ericsson, Intel, Qualcomm, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering, and U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as international partners from Finland, India, Japan, and Sweden. By collaborating with industry and international partners, the program will ensure U.S.-led technological advancements drive NextG global telecommunication networks as well as emerging “vertical industries” such as connected autonomous vehicles, advanced manufacturing, precision agriculture, disaster response, remote healthcare, critical infrastructure, and data centers, among others.

Featured Image: ECE Assistant Professor Feng Ye is principal investigator for a new NSF-funded VINES project. Credit: Joel Hallberg