SDR Forum announces its first Smart Radio Challenge, finalists to design, develop, test software-defined or cognitive radio
DENVER, 24 Nov. 2006. At its annual Technical Conference last week in Orlando, Fla., the SDR Forum (www.sdrforum.org) announced the qualifying teams in its first Smart Radio Challenge. The Challenge is a worldwide competition in which student engineering teams design, develop, and test a software-defined radio (SDR) or a cognitive radio.
The finalists for Smart Radio Challenge '07 comprise two teams from Virginia Tech and one each from Clemson, Pennsylvania State, University of Utah, France's Ecole Supérieur d'Electricité (Supélec), Universiti Putri Malaysia, and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.
A nonprofit international industry association supporting the development and deployment of "smart" radio technology for improved public safety communications, the SDR Forum has long been active in educational endeavors and has academic members that include universities in Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Spain, and the U.S.
Its Smart Radio Challenge '07 was open to student teams from all academic institutions interested in SDR and cognitive radio. 43 student teams from 12 different countries signed up. The qualifying teams will now have 10 months to complete and submit their projects.
Virginia Tech's MPRG (Mobile & 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 250kHz channels in the 5MHz 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 465MHz), a garage door opener (455 MHz), a 900MHz 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.
