The goal of ConnectU is to connect the three billion people of this world who are still unconnected to fundamental services such as healthcare and education. ConnectU does not aim to merely bring Internet connectivity to rural America. Instead, its goal is to create an ecosystem which constitutes the next-generation of low-cost, low-power, immersive digital connectivity along with a community that is trained to use, maintain, and enhance this technology, empowering it to thrive autonomously. Bringing the proverbial last-mile connectivity to the 44-million Americans will require transformative, convergent multidisciplinary research. The Center will create a first-of-its-kind low-cost, low power, aerial, mobile, multi-functional platform - referred to as ConnectU Platform or CUP- that will have the ability to connect homes in rural America strategically using cutting edge satellite and/or cellular backbones. The engineered system – CUP – will be a significant innovation in how a low cost, power-aware, immersive-media enabled, multifunctional platform can bring the “last mile” connectivity at unprecedented speed and delay. There is no infrastructure like the CUP in today’s technology. Cost-effectiveness will be accomplished by exploiting the multi-functional capability of the CUP, in a high-level spatial and temporal multiplex, where it can be deployed to monitor wildfires or pest invasions during non-peak internet traffic hours (such as at night). Fundamental new knowledge will be created in networking transmission, protocol, RF hardware, and antenna design leading to GBps order of data rate and microsecond order of delay that does not exist today. Artificial intelligence driven dynamic resource allocation schemes for cost-effective infrastructure, innovation in coding schemes for Augmented and Virtual reality applications and breakthroughs in battery life for miniaturized aerial platforms are some of the other verticals in which ConnectU will contribute new knowledge to the engineering community.