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NEWS

"Smart Radio Challenge" finalists named

by Jessica Davis, Electronic News, 23 November:

"The SDR Forum (software defined radio) has announced the qualifying teams in its Smart Radio Challenge '07.

"The worldwide competition challenges student engineering teams to design, develop and test a software defined radio or cognitive radio. Finalists comprise two teams from Virginia Tech and one each from Clemson, Pennsylvania State, the University of Utah, France's École Supérieur d'Électricité, Universiti Putri Malaysia and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.

"The competition is offered by the SDR Forum, a nonprofit international industry association supporting the development and deployment of 'smart' radio technology for improved public safety communications. The current challenge was open to student teams from all academic institutions interested in SDR and cognitive radio. Forty-three student teams from 12 different countries signed up for the competition, all submitting proposals specific to the Forum-defined problem by Sept. 30. The qualifying teams will now have 10 months to complete and submit their projects.

"The SDR Forum announced the finalists at its annual Technical Conference last week in Orlando, [Florida].

"Virginia Tech's MPRG (Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group) and CWT (Center for Wireless Telecommunications), the University of Utah, and Clemson teams will each develop a cognitive transceiver system that can detect available 250-kHz channels in the 5-MHz Family Radio Service (FRS) frequency band (462 to 467 MHz).

"The Supélec and Penn State teams will develop wireless transceivers that can load waveforms based on available services, including a commercial AM receiver, FRS (FM 462 to 465 MHz), a garage door opener (455 MHz), a 900-MHz digital cordless phone, and a GPS receiver.

"The Royal Institute of Technology and Universiti Putri Malaysia teams will each design a vehicle locater transmitter system that can track and report the location of radio-controlled vehicles while in motion.

"After the development phase, the SDR Forum will award several prizes, and teams already qualified may compete in successive years for the annual prizes, which include monetary grants to the student teams as well as their university departments.

"The Smart Challenge is sponsored by Altera, Lyrtech, The MathWorks, Objective Interface, PrismTech, Synplicity, Texas Instruments, Xilinx, and Zeligsoft. The Forum is also accepting additional sponsorships from companies and government agencies worldwide."

[SDR - 23 November 2006]