Astrapi Corporation Receives a National Science Foundation (NSF) Award to Optimize Spiral Modulation

NSF Grants Astrapi a Phase IIA Supplemental Award with Teaming Partner Morgan State University to Extend Spiral Modulation Research

Astrapi Corporation is pleased to announce the award of a supplemental contract to our existing National Science Foundation (NSF) Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant related to Spiral Polynomial Division Multiplexing (SPDM) with Morgan State University. SPDM provides a structured way to dramatically increase the flexibility of symbol waveform design and to use this additional flexibility to address key problems in telecommunications. This IIA research grant will fund a project to utilize Machine Learning to optimize the design of symbol waveform polynomials. The resulting optimized waveforms will lead to improved radio performance.

“We are already demonstrating significant reduction in required signal power using Spiral Modulation in a Software Defined Radio platform. This project enables Astrapi to extend our research on how best to optimize Spiral Modulation,” said Dr. Jerrold Prothero, Astrapi Founder and CEO. “We are delighted to begin this effort with Dr. Kofi Nyarko, the Director of the Engineering Visualization Research Laboratory (EVRL) at Morgan State University. Using Machine Learning techniques will greatly assist us in determining the best polynomial selection to derive the optimal spectral efficiency for various communication channel conditions.”

Spiral Modulation provides benefits for a wide variety of commercial and defense communication systems, including satellite, defense, mobile, and Internet of Things. Astrapi is now actively establishing technology transition relationships.

“The additional resources afforded by the NSF award will significantly impact our efforts to support the innovative work that Astrapi is currently advancing in spiral modulation,” said Dr. Nyarko. “We are quite honored to have been given the opportunity to share our expertise and competency to this transformative research that is optimizing spiral modulation by applying machine learning algorithms and advanced learnings in computation.”

A critical and limiting problem for any communication system is the required signal power needed to transmit increasing amounts of data. Phase I and II project results for Spiral Modulation have demonstrated considerable promise for supporting very precise and low-overhead spectral efficiency. This Phase IIA project enables Astrapi to extend our significant Spiral Modulation power advantages.

Follow this link to the NSF Awards page: 
https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1738453&HistoricalAwards=false)

ABOUT Astrapi Corporation 
Astrapi is the pioneer of spiral-based signal modulation, which opens an unexplored area for innovation at the core of telecommunications. Based on a generalization of Euler’s formula, the foundational mathematics for telecom, Astrapi provides fundamentally new ways to design the symbol waveforms used to encode digital transmissions. By applying new mathematics to signal modulation, Astrapi is able to improve the trade-off between the four fundamental parameters in telecommunications: bandwidth, signal power, data throughput, and error rate. The resulting efficiency translates into higher spectral performance with more bits available at a lower cost. 
http://www.astrapi-corp.com

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ABOUT the National Science Foundation 
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent Federal agency created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC 1861-75). The Act states the purpose of the NSF is “to promote the progress of science; [and] to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering.”

NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the US. NSF receives approximately 55,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships.

ABOUT Morgan State University     
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 100 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit http://www.morgan.edu.

ABOUT EVRL Laboratory at Morgan State University 
The Morgan State University Engineering Visualization Research Laboratory (EVRL) provides tools, technology and techniques that offer insight into complex data or concepts. EVRL engages in a wide area of research involving engineering visualization, computational engineering and general electrical engineering principles. By providing the means to fully realize ideas, concepts or data through visual, tactile and auditory means, one can enhance comprehension, improve awareness and stimulate innovation. 

“We are already demonstrating significant reduction in required signal power using Spiral Modulation in a Software Defined Radio platform. This project enables Astrapi to extend our research on how best to optimize Spiral Modulation,” said Dr. Jerrold Prothero, Astrapi Founder and CEO