Designing a Low-Cost Mobile Tracking System for Communication with a Medium Earth Orbit Satellite

An essential part of satellite communication is the orientation of the antenna, which can be difficult to ascertain on mobile platforms such as ships. While equipment to measure orientation accurately at sea exists, current solutions are expensive. This paper describes work toward an antenna orientation system using low-cost Global Position System (GPS) receivers. We investigated two methods: one using the spatial difference between multiple GPS units at the vertices of a polygon, and the other using the differences over time measured using a single GPS unit We tested the antenna orientation system with the Omnispace F2 satellite at the US Electrodynamics, Inc. (USEI) teleport in Brewster, WA. Although non-correlated systematic errors in the GPS receivers made the multiple-GPS system impractical, the time-differential method was able to maintain a satellite lock for the majority of a simple test course. The reliability of this solution may be further improved using a gain-based correction algorithm

Impact Report 2018: Equity and Excellence

For over 30 years, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) has pioneered the future of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education through its two legislative charges: 1) to provide a uniquely challenging education for students talented in the areas of mathematics and science; and 2) to stimulate further excellence for all Illinois schools in mathematics and science. IMSA champions these goals through: Residential education: Helping talented 10th-12th graders representing over 93% of Illinois counties to date reach their fullest potential. Student and educator outreach: Leading the charge to continually innovate K-12 STEM education, creating a strong and diverse STEM talent base through teacher training, turnkey STEM curricula and student enrichment. Entrepreneurship and innovation: Strengthening Illinois’ STEM pipeline through entrepreneurship training and makerspace education in a collaborative environment. Sustaining excellence in STEM teaching and making inroads into equity has never been more challenging and complicated given our national landscape. Yet, I know that you share my commitment to this vision. As STEM education moves into an increasingly complex world, IMSA is positioned to provide the leadership necessary to train and guide future generations. Our alumni will indeed go on to “earn degrees in laws and letters” in the words of our founder, Dr. Leon Lederman. “There are likely to be those few who create new intellectual worlds, cure a dreaded human ailment, or in some other way significantly influence life on our planet. For the next 30 years, we will continue to treat our charges as if each one is capable of this extraordinary achievement. Respectfully, José M. Torres, Ph.D., Presiden

IMSA360: Spring 2018

IMSA is a leader in educating and developing a diverse STEM pipeline of creative, ethical, and scientific innovators for Illinois and the world. We aspire to become a recognized global leader and catalyst in equity and excellence in STEM teaching and learning, innovation and entrepreneurship. Excerpt: From the Presiden

Predictive smart relaying schemes for decentralized wireless systems

Recent developments in decentralized wireless networks make the technology potentially deployable in an extremely broad scenarios and applications. These include mobile Internet of Things (IoT) networks, smart cities, future innovative communication systems with multiple aerial layer flying network platforms and other advanced mobile communication networks. The approach also could be the solution for traditional operated mobile network backup plans, balancing traffic flow, emergency communication systems and so on. This thesis reveals and addresses several issues and challenges in conventional wireless communication systems, particular for the cases where there is a lack of resources and the disconnection of radio links. There are two message routing plans in the data packet store, carry and forwarding form are proposed, known as KaFiR and PaFiR. These employ the Bayesian filtering approach to track and predict the motion of surrounding portable devices and determine the next layer among candidate nodes. The relaying strategies endow smart devices with the intelligent capability to optimize the message routing path and improve the overall network performance with respect to resilience, tolerance and scalability. The simulation and test results present that the KaFiR routing protocol performs well when network subscribers are less mobile and the relaying protocol can be deployed on a wide range of portable terminals as the algorithm is rather simple to operate. The PaFiR routing strategy takes advantages of the Particle Filter algorithm, which can cope with complex network scenarios and applications, particularly when unmanned aerial vehicles are involved as the assisted intermediate layers. When compared with other existing DTN routing protocols and some of the latest relaying plans, both relaying protocols deliver an excellent overall performance for the key wireless communication network evolution metrics, which shows the promising future for this brand new research direction. Further extension work directions based on the tracking and prediction methods are suggested and reviewed. Future work on some new applications and services are also addressed