Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Syracuse iSchool Professor Lee McKnight receives two-year $600,000 NSF grant for wireless grid project

Thursday, October 8, 2009, By News Staff
Share
researchSchool of Information Studies

Lee McKnight, associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) and co-founder of Wireless Grids Corp., and a team of researchers at SU have been awarded—along with Virginia Tech—a National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnership for Innovation (PFI) two-year grant totaling $600,000 for the Wireless Grid Innovation Testbed (WiGiT).

The WiGiT will assist in refining transformative technologies to create markets, bridge the gap between wireless network middleware and grid application layers, and accelerate commercialization and adoption of new products and services. WiGiT serves industry needs for intra-system, or crossover, work bridging the world of grid or cloud computing and wireless Internet by contributing to open standards and application programming interfaces for wireless grids.

This initiative will initially include faculty and students from SU, Virginia Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon, Portugal, with plans to include other world leading academic institutions. McKnight and Virginia Tech Professor Tamal Bose will serve as principal investigators of the WiGiT, which will also include leading researchers in wireless, grid and entrepreneurship fields.

Participants and partners at the inception of the project, in addition to the academic institutions, include private sector organizations and corporate partners such as Clear Channel Radio; Qualcomm, Syracuse Research Corp.; SenSyr LLC; Center for Advanced Engineering & Research, Inc.; MOD-ECO; and Wireless Grids Corp. (WGC). Governmental and intergovernmental organizations involved in the Testbed project include Knowledge Society Agency Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Portugal; and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.

“The expansive collaboration driving this project is truly breathtaking,” says SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. “It transcends disciplines, spans institutions and crosses sectors—as well as oceans—to bring the best minds together to create game-changing technologies whose impact will be felt worldwide. Catalyzing creativity and innovation in this way is exactly what our vision, Scholarship in Action, is all about and we’re thrilled that Lee McKnight is spearheading this project.”

The main goal of the project is to evaluate specifications for possible industry standards in order to scale and integrate the transformative innovation of wireless grids developed in a prior Partnership for Innovation project, with specifications and protocols developed in Virginia Tech’s NSF I/UCRC Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology, meshed with technologies and ideas from students, faculty and companies worldwide.

“This NSF funding bears testimony to the exciting, forward-looking research that will be conducted by a stellar team that will be investigating the issues regarding standards that must be addressed to enable the bridging between wireless grids and cloud computing,” says iSchool Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy. “Our faculty and students thrive on conducting research on leading-edge technologies and software. We see great potential in the contributions WiGiT can make to society.”

WiGiT will determine the extent to which wireless grid computing may augment communication networks and standards such as the Internet, Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax and mobile WiMax for data transmission communication, collaboration, research and commercial purposes. WiGiT will test the Varsity Media Group proprietary “edgeware” software that resides beyond the cloud, across edge networks and devices, both wired and wireless.

“The award received by Syracuse University and Virginia Tech and its corporate and other partners from NSF’s Partnership for Innovation program is a significant milestone in the path of wireless grids from basic research to innovative standards, and has tremendous commercial opportunities for a wide variety of firms,” McKnight says. “I am pleased that Wireless Grids Corp., born as a result of a prior Partnership for Innovation award, is now a key partner contributing its expertise and software to WiGiT.”

In September, Varsity Media Acquisition Corp. completed its merger with Wireless Grid Corp., which was spun out of SU to commercialize research concepts and intellectual property produced in its School of Information Studies Wireless Grid Lab. The WGC software-based solution is a next generation application that transforms computer networking and wireless infrastructures (all devices) ability to interact seamlessly with zero to little configuration. WGC has been recognized as one of the “9 Wireless Companies to Watch” by Network World in August 2008.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • ‘Confronting ‘Who We Are”
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By News Staff
  • Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By Dan Bernardi
  • University College Announces Online Degree in Computer Programming
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By Eileen Jevis
  • Stadium Testing Center Closed for Planned Enhancements Wednesday, Jan. 20
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By News Staff
  • Sound Beat: Access Audio Offering Children’s Audiobooks about Enslaved People by Cheryl Wills ’89
    Tuesday, January 19, 2021, By Cristina Hatem

More In STEM

Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado

After 25 years working in the field of forensic science and over two decades of executive experience as a laboratory director, Kathleen Corrado has been named director of the Forensic and National Security Science Institute (FNSSI) in the College of…

Hehnly Lab Awarded $1.2M NIH Grant to Research Critical Tissue Formation

A key process during the development of an embryo is tissue morphogenesis, where the number of cells in an organism increase through cell division and tissues begins to take shape. Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a…

The Role of Digital Forensics and Tracking Down US Capitol Riot Criminals

With just under a week left before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, investigators and law enforcement agencies across the country are working speedily to identify as many of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot offenders as they can. Knowing exactly…

A&S Researchers Awarded $2.1M Grant to Study Causes of Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, affecting nearly 1 percent of births in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors have been unable to lower that number…

$1.5 Million NIH Grant Funds ALS-Linked Research

The human body is made up of trillions of cells. Within each cell are proteins which help to maintain the structure, function and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. When cells are under stress, as in response to heat…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.