I built a mmWave material classification radar

The author built a millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar prototype designed to detect asbestos in building materials, addressing the expensive and inconvenient traditional testing process that costs homeowners significantly more than the actual analysis. The system uses FMCW radar technology combined with Capon beamforming and neural networks to classify material signatures and identify asbestos-containing surfaces without requiring lab samples. Though conceived as an academic end-of-studies project, the startup effort remained unfunded and ongoing, though the author demonstrated the technical feasibility through a complete digital signal processing pipeline.