IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Taenzer Webinar Dr Shikik Johnson SHARES HF Radio Program

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IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Taenzer Webinar Series:

Dr Shikik Johnson SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio Program:

Communication Emergency System and Methods

During emergencies including natural disasters, accidents, and terrorism, for example during 9-11, the communications network can become compromised with associated risks to individuals and the community creating a humanitarian crisis. For people with disabilities and compromised health, loss of communication can result in very poor outcomes. Dr. Shikik Johnson will present the (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency):

https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/programs/shared-resources-shares-high-frequency-hf-radio-program

SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio program provides an additional means for users with a national security and emergency preparedness mission to communicate when landline and cellular communications are unavailable. SHARES members use existing HF radio resources to coordinate and transmit messages needed to perform critical functions, including those areas related to leadership, safety, maintenance of law and order, finance, and public health.

National security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) personnel need to transmit critical messages to coordinate emergency operations even when traditional means of communicating via landlines and cellphones are damaged or destroyed. The SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio Program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Coordinating Center for Communications (NCC), provides an additional means for users with a NS/EP mission to communicate when landline and cellular communications are unavailable.

SHARES members use existing HF radio resources of government, critical infrastructure, and disaster response organizations to coordinate and transmit emergency messages. SHARES users rely on HF radio communications to perform critical functions, including those areas related to leadership, safety, maintenance of law and order, finance, and public health. This program also provides the emergency response community with a single interagency emergency message handling and frequency sharing system. SHARES promotes interoperability between HF radio systems and promotes awareness of applicable regulatory, procedural, and technical issues.

More than 3,290 HF radio stations—representing over 590 federal, state, and industry organizations located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several locations overseas—are resource contributors to the SHARES HF Radio Program. Nearly 500 emergency planning and response personnel participate in SHARES. Approximately 200 HF radio channels are available for use by SHARES members.

Membership in the SHARES program is voluntary. SHARES is available on a 24-hour basis and requires no prior coordination or activation to transmit messages. Members consult the SHARES Handbook to find stations, frequencies and/or Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) addresses of participating organizations they need to communicate/coordinate with. Participating SHARES HF radio stations accept and relay messages until a receiving station is able to deliver the message to the intended recipient.

Dr. Shikik Johnson joined AT&T in 2013 as an Electromagnetic Analyst to work on the now called AirGig™ project. His extensive experience in electromagnets and materials merged with the disciplines of Electrical Engineering and Materials facilitated interest in communications technologies using light. Dr. Shikik Johnson worked on microwave-active materials in an attempt to design low-powered miniaturized solid-state devices. Part of his focus involved what role highly polarizable ions situated in the prototypical perovskite-type crystal structure can play in dynamically tuned microwave antennas. This work led to novel discoveries in microwave impedance matching techniques over wide frequency ranges which are very valuable today in the midst of emerging 5G technologies.

Awards and Honors Include: NSF International Research; Alfred Sloan Fellowship; NASA Space Consortium Scholarship; 40 patents with AT&T pertaining to the AirGig™ Project.

 

Dr. Shikik Johnson has extensive experience in electromagnets and materials earning his PhD from Penn State Intercollege Graduate Program in Materials, Materials Research Laboratories (MRL) under Robert Newnham where he was able to custom tailor his education merging the disciplines of Electrical Engineering with Materials to facilitate his interest in communications technologies using light. While at MRL, Shikik worked on microwave-active materials in an attempt to design low-powered miniaturized solid-state devices. Part of his focus involved what role highly polarizable ions situated in the prototypical perovskite-type crystal structure can play in dynamically tuned microwave antennas. This work led Shikik to novel discoveries in microwave impedance matching techniques over wide frequency ranges which are very valuable today in the midst of emerging 5G technologies. 

Shortly before his PhD work, Shikik worked for the Department of the Navy under the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC-SD) where he worked side by side with scientists and engineers from diverse backgrounds on low-observable communications technologies.  In fact, it was his experience at SPAWAR that led Shikik Johnson to go back to school to further his studies in the areas of Electromagnetics in order that he could gain a better understanding of how light interacted with materials. 

After attaining his PhD in 2005 Shikik spent 3 years in the Mediterranean at the Univsersitá degli Studi  di Salerno (University Students of Salerno) in southern Italy (from 2006-2009) where he worked as co-Principle Investigator funded by the International Research Fellowship Program on Cantor dust mathematical schemes applied to Fractal microwave antennas.  There Dr. Shikik Johnson gained insights on how the European technical community conduct research which proves valuable today when forging international partnerships. 

Dr. Shikik Johnson has received numerous fellowships, namely, NSF International Research Program, Alfred Sloan Fellowship, NASA Space Consortium Scholarship, Penn State Minority Fellowship, Penn State Research grant, Penn State Initiation Research grant, General Motors Scholarship, and most recently Shikik Johnson is the principal Inventor of 40 patents with AT&T pertaining to the AirGig Project.  Relatively recently, in 2015 Shikik became an Amateur Radio operator and currently runs the SHARES program at AT&T’s Middletown NJ station. 

Born in the row homes of South Philadelphia, Dr. Shikik Johnson has traveled a colorful path to this point with a long road ahead yet to be discovered. 

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IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Taenzer Webinar Dr Shikik Johnson SHARES HF Radio Program

Introductions: Dr. Shikik Johnson

Host and Panel

Attendees

Presentation

Discussion

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IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Taenzer Webinar Dr Shikik Johnson SHARES HF Radio Program

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