New York University and Polytechnic Institute of NYU (NYU-Poly) have launched a centre for the study of wireless technology, computing and health applications. The new body is called NYU Wireless and it will specialise in the study of advanced communications and antenna technologies, spectrum efficiency, medical imaging, smaller and smarter cellular networks and devices that co-operate to use available spectrum more effectively.

The academic institutions claims the new institution is a first although media reports point to other pre-existing centres in the US already working in the areas of telecoms and health. NYU Wireless will be staffed by 25 faculty and 100 student researchers.

Founder and director Professor Ted Rappaport indicated that millimetre-wave spectrum is an area of interest which he said was “uncrowded” and meant it had “enough capacity to accommodate breakthroughs in cellular and personal wireless communication networks”.

University of Southern California, Harvard and UCLA all support wireless health centres but Rappaport claimed to MobiHealthNews that NYU Wireless would be different. Unlike existing initiatives the new body will look at wireless solutions in hospitals rather than  remote health monitoring, a favoured area for its peers. Vendor National Instruments is the founding sponsor of the new centre.