Harvard Students Develop AI-Powered Sensors to Locate Troops and Drones

Distributed Spectrum, a company founded by Harvard students, is developing tiny AI-powered sensors to help the US military detect enemy troops and drones through radio emissions.

The need for such technology is particularly evident in Ukraine, where radio waves are essential for warfare communication, guided missiles, and explosive-laden drones. I Photo: Isaac Struhl

Recently, the company announced that it had raised $25 million in a Series A funding round. The need for such technology is particularly evident in Ukraine, where radio waves are essential for warfare communication, guided missiles, and explosive-laden drones.

“We’re solving a net-new, technically hard problem that involves machine learning, embedded systems, signal processing, and user design,” the company stated.

Alex Wulff, the company’s CEO, specializes in circuit design, signal processing, and radio communications.

He previously developed sensor systems and electronic warfare technologies at Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and authored a textbook on radio systems. Ben Harpe, the chief operating officer (COO), has experience in strategy and operations, reporting directly to the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar startup.

He has also served as the chief executive of a consulting firm generating $1 million in annual revenue while working with Fortune 500 clients and has held engineering positions at Microsoft and Bridgewater.

Isaac Struhl, the chief technology officer (CTO), has a background in neurobiology research, computational biology, and machine learning. He has industry experience as a lead software developer at a media startup and as a software engineer at Google.