Based at NC State, AERPAW—Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless—is the first wireless research platform to study the convergence of 5G technology and autonomous drones. AERPAW is funded by a $24 million grant, awarded by the PAWR Project Office on behalf of the National Science Foundation, to develop an advanced wireless research platform, led by North Carolina State University, in partnership with the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina, Mississippi State University and Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; additional partners include Town of Cary, City of Raleigh, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Purdue University, University of South Carolina, and many other academic, industry and municipal partners. For experimenters interested in using AERPAW, the User Manual of AERPAW can be accessed here.

Call for Participation: AERPAW Community Workshop (ACW) 2025

*** AERPAW is organizing its third community workshop, ACW 2025, between May 27-30: https://aerpaw.org/acw-2025-schedule/. The workshop will focus on training researchers on how to use AERPAW to do experiments with advanced wireless and autonomous drones. There will be travel support for up to 40 students. Interested students should apply from the following link by April 5th to be considered: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfnmG_1YdjquStVagTDBRckRA5bpkrwd4lX55s3gJEqZyBmWQ/viewform

Call for Participation: AERPAW Autonomous Data Mule (AADM) Student Challenge

*** During Spring-Summer 2025, AERPAW is organizing the AERPAW Autonomous Data Mule (AADM) Student Challenge. Student teams will program wireless radios and autonomous drones where the approach that downloads all the data from a set of towers the fastest will be the winner. More details including timelines, registration, and webinar information can be found at: https://aerpaw.org/aerpaw-aadm-challenge/