Michigan Tech Research Institute Receives Radar Defense Contract

The Michigan Tech Research Institute in Ann Arbor, Mich., has signed a six-month, $1 million contract with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct research in adaptive radar countermeasures.  The contract could be extended to five years and be worth $9 million if all options are exercised. 

MTRI will be developing a new approach to the challenging problem of separating and analyzing radar signals by the function they are intended to perform. Radar—originally an acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging—is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, direction and speed of objects.

MTRI’s expertise in radar, signal processing and the radio frequency spectrum makes it ideally suited for this kind of effort.

“This work helps position Michigan Tech and MTRI in the quickly evolving world of radio frequency spectrum usage,” said Nikola Subotic, co-director of MTRI and a principal investigator on the new project. 

“In the old days, radars had their allocated spectra (the radio frequencies they use), communications had theirs, and so on,” Subotic went on to say. “The cell phone industry has had to deal with the problem of multiple users within their allocated spectra.  However, all cell phones’ function is the same: cooperative data passing and communications.”

MTRI is looking at a much more complicated challenge: the simultaneous coexistence of a variety of uses of the same spectrum  “In the future, all of these spectra will be mixed together, so it will not be clear which function is intended or if in fact there are multiple functions, such as sensing, communications, navigation and control,” Subotic explained.

“That’s why technologies must be developed that can isolate and understand the intent of signals that mutually coexist.”
MTRI is no stranger to defense and homeland security research. The institute is involved in a number of national security projects whose goal is research, development and practical application of sensors and information technology to help solve critical national security issues.  MTRI is a recognized leader in the use of portable radar and ground penetrating radar systems.

Although based 500 miles from Michigan Tech’s Houghton, Mich., campus, MTRI is an integral part of the university. Its scientists and technicians are Tech faculty members and staff, and MTRI offers undergraduate and graduate research internships each summer.  In addition to national security work, the institute applies information technology solutions to problems in infrastructure and the natural environment. It also gives Michigan Tech a presence in southeastern Michigan. 

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Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.