Wireless and on the Move: ECE students collaborate with Austin Independent School District

On a windy, cloudy, chilly day at the end of February, the first step towards providing wireless access to the residences of the grade school students of east Austin was taken. ECE senior design students Chris Jorgensen and James (JT) Longino, working with ECE/WNCG faculty member, Bill Bard, are undertaking the first of several design projects at the request of the Austin Independent School District (AISD). AISD approached the UT System Office of Telecommunication Services (OTS) regarding a project to investigate the feasibility of providing no cost wireless network services into the homes of AISD students that would allow students seamless access from home and school to academic resources.

The proof-of-concept project is taking place in southeast Austin in a well-defined neighborhood with three school district campuses, all of which are connected to the district's private optical fiber backbone network. The students this semester are concentrating their efforts on testing various antenna designs and network configurations. The fist on-site tests were conducted on Saturday, February 28, 2004. Chris and JT were assisted that day by ECE/WNCG graduate students Haewoon Nam and Jeremy Chen; undergraduate students Matthew Zappitello, Kevin Albert, and Andrew Chasteen; John Kohlmorgan of AISD; and Allison Thompson of UT System OTS.

This is an exciting first step in the collaboration between ECE/WNCG and AISD in creating a wireless broadband mesh network for the grade school students of east Austin.