The Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) at Northeastern University announces the establishment of an Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC) in Burlington, MA, to promote research, development, and testing of next-generation Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN). The new OTIC within the Open6G hub will be a resource for industry, academia, and the federal government to provide testing, certification, and badging capabilities to guarantee multi-vendor interoperability, perform compliance and performance testing, and validate end-to-end control logic; as well as test artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to control open and programmable cellular networks.
The new Northeastern OTIC builds on facilities and capabilities available in the Open6G center, which will be expanded with dedicated testing equipment. Key capabilities include:
- Large-scale Experimental Wireless Testbeds – Colosseum, funded by the National Science Foundation, is the world’s largest wireless network emulator, with 256 software-defined radios and 25 server racks equipped with programmable GPUs, FPGAs, and orchestration tools. Colosseum has hosted demonstrations of closed-loop control with xApps in O-RAN using the OpenRAN Gym framework, large-scale data collection for AI/ML training, and extensive testing of commercial radios and emulated devices. Arena is the over-the-air complement to Colosseum, which hosts a first-of-its-kind fully automated private 5G network.
- FCC Innovation Zone – The OTIC is part of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Innovation Zone, which covers multiple 5G bands in the Northeastern University campuses in Boston and Burlington, MA. This allows over-the-air testing of O-RAN systems in a variety of different environments.
- Diverse 5G RAN Deployments: The OTIC encompasses multiple 5G RAN deployments, including commercial/proprietary as well as Open RAN products such as 5G User Equipment (UE), core networks, and a programmable 5G O-RAN testbed with over 10 base stations in the indoor Arena testbed. This extensive infrastructure facilitates testing and integration of xApps and rApps against various RAN implementations in emulated and over-the-air environments.
- Specialized Testing Facilities: The OTIC is co-located with a large outdoor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) testing facility to explore use cases related to drone mobility and with an anechoic chamber designed to conduct interference-free radio device testing.
The Northeastern OTIC has been launched in partnership with AT&T, Verizon, and DISH. The WIoT industry consortium, which has been supporting this effort, counts about 20 vendors, operators, over-the-top system integrators, and small businesses in the telecom space.
Seekr, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in transparent content evaluation, today announced a consultative effort with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University to embed ethical considerations into the development of its groundbreaking news rating system.
The Markkula Center conducted a months-long, impartial review of the technology, providing Seekr engineers with actionable insights. As part of its continuous improvement in Machine Learning, Seekr has applied this guidance to its best-in-class training approach to enable greater precision, accuracy, quality, and objectivity of Seekr’s scoring system for news.
Seekr is the first known technology platform that employs AI and natural language processing (NLP) to evaluate and rate news content for reliability, transparency, and quality based on adherence to journalism standards.
“Journalism and media ethics are understood to be critical for journalists and news publishers, but less appreciated is its need and crucial applicability for search and social media products which distribute the news we read every day,” said Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. “We are very happy to have contributed inputs on using journalism ethics standards for news distribution to the product team at Seekr.”
The Markkula Center’s evaluation is one of several independent reviews of Seekr’s groundbreaking technology. Last month, Seekr announced the formation of an independent Journalist Advisory Board comprising accomplished journalists and decorated news editors whose collective guidance and expertise helps inform Seekr’s understanding of journalism standards.
Woxsen University commissions Phase-1 of its Solar Power generation on campus. With this, the university has successfully followed through with its commitment announced last year in November. The commissioning was inaugurated by Sridhar Gadhi, Founder & Exec. Chairman, Quantela and Revathy Ashok, Co-Founder, Strategy Garage.
Sridhar Gadhi, Founder & Exec. Chairman, Quantela and Revathy Ashok, Co-Founder, Strategy Garage, inaugurating the Phase-1 of Solar Power generation at Woxsen University
Ratna Rakhi Pula (CF & AO, Woxsen University), Dr. Raul V Rodriguez (Vice-President, Woxsen University), Dr. Krishna Chalam (Vice-Chancellor, Woxsen University), Vishal Khurma (CEO-Woxsen University), Sridhar Gadhi (Founder & Exec. Chairman, Quantela), Revathy Ashok (Co-Founder, Strategy Garage), Dr. M. Rammohan Rao (Former Director, IIM Bangalore), Praveen K. Pula (Chancellor-Woxsen University) in AI & Robotics lab at Woxsen Univeristy.
Phase-1 is currently slated to generate 328 kW of the total 1MW, which will cover the energy requirement of the most important administrative and academic blocks. These blocks house all the state-of-art learning spaces, high-tech labs and central library situated at the heart of the 200 Acre residential campus. The labs include the AI & Robotics Lab and Bloomberg Finance Lab which is one of the largest in Asia and the Central Library which is the largest in India. The university aims to achieve an installed capacity of 1 MW by the end of 2023. This major launch will significantly contribute to Woxsen’s aim of reducing its carbon footprint and towards becoming Net Zero.
Woxsen University’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond energy conservation. The institution actively promotes various initiatives, including waste management, water conservation and eco-friendly practices on campus. By incorporating solar energy into its operations, the university is at the forefront of the green movement in the education sector.
Woxsen University, located in Hyderabad, is one of the first private universities of the state of Telangana, India. Renowned for its 200-acre state-of-the-art campus and infrastructure, Woxsen University offers new-age, disruptive programs in the fields of Business, Technology, Arts & Design, Architecture, Law, Liberal Arts & Humanities, Sciences. With 100+ Global Partner Universities and Strong Industry Connect, Woxsen is reckoned as one of the top universities for Academic Excellence and Global Edge.
Echo360, the most comprehensive, global, SaaS-based video platform for creating, delivering, and measuring learning engagement outcomes in any learning environment, announced a new professional learning commitment and leader at its annual virtual community conference this month.
EchoProfessional Learning (e.PL) will support and expand the pedagogical impact of Echo360 customers, partners, and solutions for higher education, building regional and global communities of inspired learning leaders.
e.PL made its global debut at the company’s EchoExperience 2023 pre-conference customer workshop, which convened over 200 customers from around the world to hear and apply best practices from higher ed instructors from The University of Otago, Howard University, Gallaudet University, and University College London. Moving forward, e.PL’s suite of engagement offerings will also include:
- Regional workshops, including upcoming June/July events in Boston, Connecticut, and London
- Pedagogy-focused support resources and digital content
- EdTech publication and conference presentationsThe company’s “e3” Tech Grants program, which awards over $100K each year in financial and technology grants to educators advancing inspired learning research and innovation.
EchoProfessional Learning (e.PL) is led by Alison Maloney, an academic and professional development veteran who brings over 20 years of experience to the role, including work at Heinemann, Merril, and Pearson prior to Echo360.
Gravyty announced its groundbreaking fundraising and engagement software platform for higher education advancement and alumni relations teams. The Gravyty higher education platform revolutionizes how university advancement teams engage, solicit and steward students, alumni and donors through personalization, seamless integrations and AI. Through the fully integrated platform, institutions will benefit from sustainable long-term growth, reportable ROI and a simplified user experience.
“We’re thrilled to be able to provide a holistic platform that helps institutions solve for the challenges they face in advancement—from engaging with alumni at scale to executing a dynamic digital fundraising strategy to stewarding donors and building pipeline year-round,” said Josh Robertson, VP of Product at Gravyty.
Robertson continued, “We’ve designed the platform to get smarter as insights grow. The data and analytics provided in the platform paired with the cyclical approach to engagement, fundraising and stewardship provides schools with a comprehensive advancement solution.”
