Link to YouTube video

Wireless Innovation between Finland and U.S. (WiFiUS) provides a platform for building long-term research and education collaboration between the two world leaders in the field of wireless networking.

The WiFiUS institute has so far connected altogether 27 U.S. institutions with a Finnish counterpart team, consisting of six research organizations in the area of dynamic radio spectrum access, which are independently supported by the Academy of Finland and Business Finland, formerly known as Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation).

The WiFiUS virtual institute was established in 2011 for promoting and sustaining mutually-beneficial research and education collaborations between US and Finland in the area of wireless networks. It has included 29 collaboration projects out of which nine are ongoing.

The institute provides an environment for creative international collaboration that leverages the synergies and resources for research and education in the two countries in order to accelerate the rate of development of research innovations and the development of talent and work-force capable of excelling in the a new highly interconnected world.

The objectives of the institute are to:

  1. facilitate and support existing and new international research and education activities in the broad area of wireless networks,
  2. enable sharing of knowledge and cross-fertilization among the participants of various relevant international projects,
  3. enable sharing of expertise with emerging experimental platforms, standards and wireless technology policies in the two countries, and
  4. facilitate and support interaction between academia, industry and government agencies of the two countries.

The technical focus of the institute is on wireless spectrum efficiency technologies, which intellectually aligns along the interests of researchers in the two countries, as well as the countries’ national priorities. The institute employs a number of activities including: (a) a web portal that provides services and content to participants, (b) physical and virtual PI meetings, (c) physical and virtual student investigator meetings, (d) yearly summer schools and (e) graduate student exchange.

With the exponential growth of wireless communication, existing telecommunication networks are unable to handle the traffic; they need to be renewed and made more efficient. Cognitive radio, which enables an efficient and optimal utilization of the radio frequency spectrum, can provide a technological breakthrough that holds great potential for the future of wireless communication.

From the Call for Project Proposals