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Department of Defense Awards CAC Researchers $1.65M in Grants

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2012-2013 have proven to be exceptional years for Villanova University’s Center for Advanced Communications (CAC). As he reflects on his 10th anniversary as Center director, Dr. Moeness Amin also is celebrating a record breaking year for competitive research grants. Together with CAC research professors Drs. Yimin Zhang and Fauzia Ahmad, Dr. Amin has been awarded a total of $1.65 million from three different Department of Defense research agencies. In all three cases, Villanova was the sole award recipient.

The broad research area covered by these awards is radar signal processing, focusing on urban and border sensing using electromagnetic waves, and using a minimum number of antennas and frequencies. The individual grants include:

  • Office of Naval Research - $750,000, Dr. Amin (PI) and Drs. Zhang and Ahmad (CO-PIs). This is the largest sole competitive research grant Dr. Amin and the CAC have received since the Center’s inception in 1990.
  • Air Force Research Lab - $450,000, Dr. Zhang (PI) and Dr. Amin (CO-PI).
  • Army Research Office and Army Research Lab - $450,000, Dr. Ahmad (PI) and Dr. Amin (CO-PI).

Dr. Amin says, “I am truly thrilled for the CAC to have received these large and highly competitive awards from the United States Department of Defense. Each grant covers a separate aspect of radar sensing and imaging and offers solutions for the detection, classification and tracking of moving and stationary targets in different settings and environments.”

In addition to a 10-year milestone and impressive government research awards, the CAC also takes great pride in recently being identified as “an excellent and rare example of how to sustain and grow a research operation in a smaller university.” A 2012 National Science Foundation report titled “Research Center Sustainability and Survival: Case Studies of Fidelity, Reinvention and Leadership of Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers” explored how, with strong leadership and a new mode of operation, the CAC became a highly successful university research center. You can access the complete report on our website.

Those interested in learning more about the Center for Advanced Communications can request a copy of the Center’s 10-Year Review.