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InterDigital and Calit2 To Launch Wireless Technology Research Competition

InterDigital will launch a new wireless technology engineering contest in collaboration with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California at San Diego. The InterDigital Innovation Challenge (I2C) is open to students and faculty of North American universities and will award $175,000 in cash prizes to the top entries, including a $100,000 prize for the winning team or individual. The contest will be be formally launched in early 2012 and will be judged by a panel from both academia and industry.

I2C aims to advance radio signal propagation and processing, radio modem technology, radio network management and systems, compression and data management techniques, energy usage in radio processing, and wireless network virtualization. "We see this contest as a great way of stimulating innovation in the wireless arena, similar to the currently underway DARPA Shredder Challenge," said Calit2 Divisional Director, Ramesh Rao. "The promise of a $100,000 award is bound to capture the imagination of our students, researchers, and faculty."

InterDigital will make a multi-year charitable donation to Calit2 to fund the engineering contest, which will enable Calit2 at U.C. San Diego to further its goals related to wireless technology innovation. "Given the strong support and leadership of Calit2, we are confident that the InterDigital Innovation Challenge will generate a number of technical breakthroughs and fresh thinking that will help shape the future of wireless," said William Merritt, InterDigital's president and chief executive officer.

Calit2 has campuses at U.C. San Diego and U.C. Irvine. More than 1,000 researchers conduct their work at the two campuses and are currently involved in more than 50 projects on the future of telecommunications and information technology and the potential for these technologies to transform a range of applications important to the economy and people's way of life.

Additional information about the contest will become available as the launch date approaches.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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