Radar Installation at University of North Texas

The radar installation at the Discovery Park campus of University of North Texas is part of a multi-sensor network, called the CASA DFW Urban Demonstration Network or CASA WX, that will help local emergency managers, National Weather Service forecasters, and weather sensitive industries save lives, and reduce injuries and the economic costs of tornadoes, flash floods, hail, and high wind events.  The network was developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA), under the leadership of University of Massachusetts Amherst, with partners Colorado State University, University of Oklahoma, government and industry members. 

Installation.  The CASA radar at University of North Texas has been installed on the rooftop of the building housing UNT's College of Engineering and College of Information at the Discovery Park campus. The campus, the NCTCOG and the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council are supporting the one-time installation costs, and the annual site-specific operational costs such as electricity and bandwidth will be covered by the campus. 

Use of the radar data. UNT Emergency Management staff will have access to radar products for campus emergency preparedness. In addition, data will be available to the UNT Hazards and Disaster Research to Respond to Global Crises Research Cluster for research on disaster planning and emergency administration, the College of Engineering, and other participants for research projects conducted along with CASA researchers. Data from this and other radars will be available to the local National Weather Service Forecast Office for evaluation and operations and to the other project participants in the region.

Entrepreneurship Course. The UNT College of Business Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship has been awarded a subcontract from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in support of a prestigious NSF Partnership For Innovation/ Accelerating Innovation Research grant. This summer, Dr. Tony Mendes, Director of the Murphy Center, will offer a new course, "Topics in Entrepreneurship," to graduate students and senior undergraduate students interested in exploring market analysis, business models, and commercialization strategies for CASA technologies (and other UNT research). Student Venture Teams, comprised of UNT graduate students from Business, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Economics, the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge, the Emergency Management program, and Natural Hazards Research will form interdisciplinary teams. These teams will work together, with involvement from CASA graduate students and staff researchers involved in translational research activities, to evaluate the technologies and processes for commercial potential and prepare documentation needed to secure funding to bring the best ideas to the marketplace. Student Venture Teams will work closely with mentors from the DFW area who have expertise in Emergency Management. Graduate students participating on the Venture Teams will gain academic credit and valuable experience in understanding business decisions involved in technology commercialization. Insight specific to opportunities in weather radar systems and markets they serve will also be an added value to students. In addition to business plans, the course will address market assessment, hardware acquisition models, data licensing models, and scalable operations models for the urban market.