The Antenna Software Initiative (ASI): ACE Results and EuRAAP Continuation

The results of four years of work within the Antenna Software Initiative (ASI) of the European Network of Excellence on Antennas (ACE) are reported. The primary goal of the ASI was to build a European framework that allows research groups, active in the development of antenna analysis and design software, to intensify and optimize cooperative research. The ASI community worked on three concrete questions: what software do we have, how good is it, and how can we make it better? This work was performed in close cooperation with ESA-ESTEC. At the last EuCAP conference (March 2009, Berlin), the EuRAAP Working Group on Software was inaugurated. The goal of this Working Group is to continue the work of the ASI community. It has to be emphasized that the ASI structure is a structure set up in a democratic way, to cope with the most important bottlenecks encountered towards European antenna-software cooperation.