Puerto Rico 5G Zone

REACH

1. ‘The Research Empowered Advanced Communication Hub’ proposal was submitted to NSF in late September.  This proposal frames Puerto Rico as the ideal national location for research, validation and pilot testing for communication based technologies based upon singularly unique attributes of our region. Areas of industry application for development would be Aerospace/New Space, BioScience/Healthtech, and Resiliency/Port Management.  The full proposal narrative is here.
2.  I participated in an Engine related webinar mid-month, and they indicated it would potentially be several more months for awardees are selected.  They did specify that there would be as many as 50 Phase I awardees, and 10 Phase II awardee with a second round of funding within 2 years. 
3. Several local organizations have already begun to use our strategy as a basis for their goals going into the new year, and we’ll continue to forge that path of identifying opportunities to fund collective work that highlights the Island’s capabilities with partners locally, nationally, and globally. 
4. One of our local partners has designed a software product that already functions as the collaboration tracking as we defined it in our proposal, but it just needs beta testing and validation.  We’ll be scheduling a demo for interested parties in the new year.  

Virginia Tech/UPR-M – 5G Green Puerto Rican Grid

1. We are working with the Puerto Rico Science, Research, and Technology Trust to establish a research testbed for 5G technology DER management of green energy microgrids at UPR-M connected to utility grids, in partnership with Virginia Tech which is current leading research in this field building upon federally sponsored initiatives.  The goal includes establishment of cyber-secure pilot implementations on the island that would help address current Puerto Rico resiliency challenges while at the same time developing the organic capacity to advance the technology, tackle smart grid implementation challenges and become a leader in developing, testing and building exportable ‘smart’ solutions for global application.
2. The work would align potentially three separate related proposal into research to be performed at a combined testbed at UPR-M that houses the UPR-M ‘Sustainable Energy Center and the UPR-M ‘Zone’ lab being sponsored by us to assist in existing  research related to the SpectrumX and Center for Advanced Radio Science Engineering (CARSE) projects. 
3. We are seeking support from partners as we solicit funding for this project, and partners with technology to test in aggregation within this facility.  Those of you already participating in our ‘Resilient Energy & Communication Technology’ resource guide will targeted.  Those who would like to be included can register here.

University of Michigan MBA Candidate Program

1. We’ve framed, and been accepted as an MBA candidate semester project for University of Michigan Ross School of Business.  The project will include research on communication-based technology adoption in business with research on national and global statistics divided by sector and company size.  The team will then meet with PR companies through PRMA doing a comparative analysis based on national and global adoption rates, develop a cost/benefit analysis for specific technologies, and write recommendations based on sector/size.  You can review the complete project overview here.
2. We have a project team assigned to us of 6 graduate students, all very high-quality professionals working on this ‘Weekend MBA’ program.  The launch is January 7th and I will be traveling to Ann Arbor to meet with the team and define expectations. 
3. They will be traveling to PR from February 6th-10th, staying at Aloft and hopefully working out of our VIG office and Lab.  The cost is all being covered by the University of Michigan Foundation.  It would be optimal to take them out to Mayaguez for one day, but we’d need a sponsor the cover the cost of transportation since it’s not part of the budget for their stipends.  

Advanced Innovation Center

1. We’ve been working with National partners in our ‘Labs Across America’ coalition to identify an optimized research environment that would maximize the unique capabilities on the Island.  This proposal is listed on our website for your review. 
2. The proposed concept would house a ‘Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility’ for highly-classified research and collaboration ‘hot-desks’ for visiting personnel working on that research. 
3. We are seeking partners to develop this site, with ‘The Zone’ serving to connect our pipeline of expertise into the resultant projects. 

PRTEC Field Demo

1. We’re working with one of our partners with a decentralized communication technology to do a field demo at PRTEC’s 120-acre plot in Arecibo.  This property and PRTEC are specifically to highlight new technology options for business ventures on the west coast of the Island. 
2. This company is looking to connect with, and support the development of blockchain technology skills on the Island. 

Governor’s Aerospace Policy Committee

1. The Governor has established an ‘Aerospace & Aeronautics Industry Support Council’, to provide guidance related to establishing a horizontal lift spaceport at Cieba.  We have been advising the Ports Authority on this initiative, specifically as it relates to the intersection of related industry on the Island, and the critical intelligent infrastructure needs for the future. 

1. We are still planning an ‘Aerospace Days’ with the Legislator in January as that request had already been made into the legislative calendar.  Several private industry partners have offered assistance in designing programming.  Our role continues to be supporting the critical intelligent infrastructure and training that will be needed for these high-tech dependent industries. 
2. This aligns to the ‘21st Century Workforce’ initiative being developed at DDEC, in addition to projects ‘The Zone’ is working on with several industry and academic partners. 

Cybersecurity Project

1. We are working with 7 Eagle Group and have agreed to collaborate on grants together, recognizing cybersecurity as foundational to advanced communication technologies.
2. There is significant federal funding currently available around developing training curriculum for cybersecurity, but it is only open to academic and/or non-profit organizations.  Our goal as an organization is to serve as the fiscal agent for funding to partners capable of rapidly developing ‘bridge’ curriculum as certificate program, and then work with local academic partners to get this curriculum long-term  into their accredited offerings. 

Dynamic Spectrum Research

1. This is related to the Virginia Tech project mentioned above. 
2. We met with the NSF Director of Dynamic Spectrum Research at NSF, John Chapin, who was visiting the island to visit our partners at UPR-M related to the Center for Advanced Radio Science Engineering (CARSE).
3. Dr. Corbin identified that NSF is very interested in doing dynamic spectrum research on the island in partnership with our lab, specifically due to the unique spectrum ‘silent zone’ established for the Arecibo Observatory.

White House Pandemic Response Proposal

1. Our partner INDUNIV hosted a two-day round table with the Mat Hepburn, the WH Director of Pandemic Response, and he asked up to speak about the REACH proposal.
2. We are working with INDUNIV on a proposal to use PR as a logistics depot/hub for critical medical supplies.  This works in tandem with some of the New Space work that we started with Department of Commerce in August.