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In this episode of Mind Matters News, host Robert J. Marks speaks with Baylor University spectrum experts Dr. Charles Baylis, Dr. Austin Egbert, and PhD candidate Jonathan Swindell about the nation’s pressing electromagnetic spectrum crisis.

Have you ever thought about all of the electromagnetic waves in the room you’re in right now? You have invisible microwave cell phone signals in the air, plus all of the signals for broadcast television and AM and FM radio. Radiation from a GPS signal is there waiting for you to tap in. The range of frequencies in electromagnetic waves is known as the electromagnetic spectrum. And that spectrum is in great demand, with the rapid proliferation of personal wireless devices, radar network, and satellite weather sensors all competing for a spot. Managing the electromagnetic spectrum is our topic today.

Rather than relying on rigid government regulations or exclusive frequency auctions, today’s guests explain how technical innovation and dynamic spectrum sharing provide a sustainable path forward. They highlight breakthrough research that is using generative AI to optimize power amplifiers on the fly, allowing radars and communication devices to shift frequencies in under a millisecond without affecting performance. There is a way for commercial technology and military defense to safely and efficiently coexist on the shared airwaves, but it will take cooperation and the freedom to innovate.

Additional Resources

• Congressional Testimony: Dr. Charles Baylis of Baylor University testifies about spectrum at the Senate Commerce hearing chaired by Senator Ted Cruz. Watch the hearing video. Baylis’s opening testimony begins about 45 minutes into the recording. The official Senate hearing page also lists him and provides his written testimony. 
• The Smith Chart: Veritasium’s Smith chart episode on YouTube: “The Scariest Chart in Electrical Engineering”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK2pZ_oVU1o 
• The Smith Tube: M. Fellows, M. Flachsbart, J. Barlow, C. Baylis, and R. J. Marks II, “The Smith Tube: Selection of Radar Chirp Waveform Bandwidth and Power Amplifier Load Impedance Using Multiple-Bandwidth Load-Pull Measurements,” 2014 IEEE 15th Annual Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), pp. 1–5, 2014.  Read the  paper.
• The Spectrum Crisis: Charles Baylis, Matthew Fellows, Lawrence Cohen, and Robert J. Marks II, “Solving the Spectrum Crisis: Intelligent, Reconfigurable Microwave Transmitter Amplifiers for Cognitive Radar,” IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 94–107, July–August 2014.  Read the full paper here.  
• AI in Microwave Design: A. Egbert, C. Baylis, and R. J. Marks II, “Extrapolation of Load-Pull Data: A Novel Use of GAN Artificial Intelligence Image Completion,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 70, no. 11, pp. 4849–4856, November 2022. Read the full paper here.   J. E. Swindell, A. Egbert, A. C. Goad, C. Baylis, and R. J. Marks, “Multidimensional Load-Pull Extrapolation of Unknown Devices Using Generative Adversarial Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 73, no. 11, pp. 8393–8404, 2025. View the paper here.