Florida Tech Professor Earns Air Force Rome Research Labs Contract

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Chang Wen Chen, Florida Tech’s Allen S. Henry Distinguished Professor and director of the university’s Wireless Center of Excellence, has
earned $40,000 in funding from the U.S. Air Force Rome Research Labs. The funding is part of a three-year $200,000 project and supports Chen’s effort to
develop a scheme for robust video communication over airborne networks.
Chen’s research is to develop a system for Air Force airborne networks, which are operating under time-varying and error-prone battlefield environments.
For instance, video sensors aboard combat helicopters capture digital TV-sized video and transmit the video to stationary or moving ground receiving
devices.
The current work involves modeling airborne network communication links of limited bandwidth, which can transmit and receive with mobile or portable
devices, such as in an unmanned aerial vehicle.