POWDER (Platform for Open Wireless Data-driven Experimental Research) is an impressive facility run by University of Utah researchers out of the School of Computing. The platform supports experimentation on 5G, Open RAN, and more to help establish the future of wireless networks.

Earlier this year, POWDER hosted its first POWDER Open Day on campus to interact with representatives from industry, national labs, government agencies and more who were interested in potentially conducting research on the platform. Attendees received an overview of the POWDER ecosystem, a tour of the facility and live demos.

“We are very pleased with POWDER's growing engagements with non-academic stakeholders in the broader mobile network ecosystem and specifically related to spectrum sharing, Open RAN and other ‘5G and beyond’ technologies,” said Kobus Van der Merwe, a professor in the School of Computing.

“POWDER is poised to be a global test-bed standard for companies introducing next gen wireless technologies, and we are very excited to explore industry partnerships in the rapidly evolving industry,” said University of Utah Chief Corporate Engagement Officer Patti Ross.

“One of the best parts about the POWDER event was the deep technical dive that faculty provided and that both government and industry partners could discuss in real time, the software and later the hardware implementations, and how that will impact the communications industry,” said Jonathan Tyler, PIVOT Center director of corporate engagement.

“It is those rare opportunities where universities, government, and industry come together where innovation that really impacts society starts to build momentum,” Tyler said.