Newsroom

Dr. Michael B. Steer, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State University, has been awarded research grants totaling over $8 million to study the performance of communication systems that are currently hardware limited. Steer is leading three projects that will address new communication architectures and design methodologies for these systems. The Department of Defense is sponsoring a five-year, $6 million project entitled “Multifunctional Adaptive Radio, Radar and Sensors” (MARRS) to reexamine completely the radio frequency architectures of communications systems such as cell phones and radar systems. Steer leads a team that includes researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the University of California, San Diego. The project is focusing on a radio that supports communication from VHF to millimeter-wave frequencies and integrates radar and sensor systems. Steer also leads a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), “Advanced Mixed Signal Modeling,” for $1.7 million and a National Science Foundation (NSF) project entitled “Novel RF Front Ends for Future Mobile Communication Systems” for $150,000. These efforts are aimed at developing new design methodologies for mixed signal circuits, particularly focusing on the radio frequency front end. The DARPA project includes Dr. Paul D. Franzon, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, as well as researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Arizona. The software programs developed as part of the projects are being made available as open source software. Steer received his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, in 1976 and 1983, respectively. -- -- -- Media Contacts: Michael Steer 919-515-5191, m.b.steer@ieee.org, http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mbs, Linda E. Rudd, 919-515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu