Smart Radio Challenge 08

Smart Radio Challenge Winners Announced

 Washington, 5 November, 2008 – The SDR Forum has announced the winners of the 2nd annual Smart Radio Challenge, a worldwide competition in which student engineering teams design, develop and test software defined and cognitive radio technologies that address specific problems relevant to the advanced wireless community.

The six qualifying teams for the 2008 Smart Challenge (www.smartradiochallenge.org) addressed one of three defined problems, which they tested and demonstrated the day before the conference.  Problem 1 involved extending the range of a wireless network, problem 2 addressed mapping frequencies and locations of RF emitters, and problem 3 was preparing a Rapid Waveform Development

Carnegie Mellon University took home three awards: Best Design, Problem 2, and Overall Winner. The team’s awards totaled $7,000 in scholarship money, two plaques and a trophy. One of two qualifying teams from Penn State took home the award for best paper ($1,000 in scholarship money and a plaque), the Virginia Tech team earned the award for Problem 1 ($2,000 in scholarship money and a trophy), and University of Calgary got the win for Problem 3 ($2,000 in scholarship money and a trophy).

The 3rd annual Smart Radio Challenge will begin spring 2009. Any university teams interested in participation should contact SDR Forum CEO Lee Pucker at lee.pucker@sdrforum.org.

The SDR Forum Smart Radio Challenge shall be performed in multiple phases: a qualifying round and one or more development rounds.

Overview of Challenge Requirements:

Phase 1: Qualification Round

      • Teams must register to participate in the SDR Forum Smart Radio Challenge by June 15, 2007.
      • SDR Forum may post up to 5 topics for the Smart Radio competition
      • By June 30, 2007 the “qualification problem(s)” will be provided to registered teams by the forum together with a qualifying guide for developing the qualifying  submittal.
      • Each team will then develop a proposal (submittal) for how they will solve the defined “problem”. Teams may submit proposals for one or more topics.
      • Written qualification submittals are due not later than September 30, 2007.
      • No more than 10 teams will be selected per topic. A topic should have at least 3 teams for it to be a valid competition. The Forum may choose to reject a submittal due to insufficient competition.
      • The content of each qualification submittal shall be as follows
        • The technical response shall be no more than 25 pages
        • The response shall include a problem overview section detailing the teams view on the primary challenges associated with the problem
        • The response shall include a technical proposal illustrating the proposed solution to the problem. The technical proposal may include preliminary designs, analysis, simulations, etc. as defined by the team. The technical proposal should attempt to determine the technical feasibility and associated risks of the proposed concept.  Utilization of components and tools, either from the “sponsors bag of parts” or otherwise, should be fully detailed in this section. This section should be a substantial portion of the total response.
        • The response shall include an explicit, detailed, work plan, detailing the schedule of key milestones and the methods planned to achieve each objective or task.
        • List of deliverables. The team shall specify what hardware documentation, software source code, software documentation, viewcells presentations, papers, and demonstrations will be delivered if the team is qualified to compete.
        • The response shall include a list of team members, indicating their area of study and related activities. A concise resume of the team leader, including a list of relevant publications (if any), must be included.  This section is limited to 10 pages total for all CV. 
        • Describe available instrumentation and physical facilities necessary to create the proposed solution, and indicate the ability of the university to support these requirements. Also state whether or not the facilities where the proposed work will be performed meet environmental laws and regulations of federal, state (name), and local Governments for, but not limited to, the following groupings:  airborne emissions, waterborne effluents, external radiation levels, outdoor noise, solid and bulk waste disposal practices, and handling and storage of toxic and hazardous materials. This section is limited to 5 pages.
      • Qualification tests will be evaluated by a panel of SDRF judges based on:
        • Overall technical approach to include a preliminary assessment of the evaluation criteria defined in the developmental section below (50%)
        • Maturity of design process (10%)
        • Use of materials provided by corporate sponsors (see below) (10%)
        • Feasibility and performance (10%)
        • Commercial viability (10%)
        • Quality of documentation and deliverables (to include simulations) (10%)
      • Based on the evaluation of their proposal, teams must qualify to participate in phase 2 of in the Smart Radio Challenge as defined below. No more than 10 teams will be selected per topic for Phase 2, or any subsequent phases. SDR Forum may also choose to put a limit on the total number of teams for all topics.
      • Teams will be notified by Dec 1, 2006 if they have qualified to participate in Phase 2.
      • Teams that qualify for Phase 2 will receive a collection of technologies and components offered by the sponsoring companies. 

Phase 2: Development Round

      • On Dec 01, 2007 the qualified teams will start with the development problem
      • The SDR Forum reserves the right to offer a selection of development problems topics and to allow the teams to select the problem of their choice
      • In Phase 2, the students will develop the prototype radio system addressing the proposed problem(s)
      • All documentation for the SDRF AC, Phase 2 is due September30, 2008.
      • The final Phase 2 solutions will be demonstrated at the SDR Forum Conference in November 2008.
      • The proposed solution will be evaluated by the SDRF panel of judges based on the following criteria
        • Functionality and Interoperability
        • Technology readiness level of end solution
        • Efficiency of design as in Size Weight and Power
        • Overall Cost
        • Reusability of design artifacts
        • Maturity of design process
        • Use of sponsor materials
        • Feasibility and performance
        • Commercial viability
        • Quality of documentation and analysis
        • Quality of Software Architecture, and compliance to code development standards, and standardized APIs
      • The final work product of each team must be original. It may not be reverse engineered from any existing hardware or software product. Teams which incorporate hardware or software from an existing product by reverse engineering will be disqualified.
      • Teams must abide by all restrictions of the licenses of provided software products. Conformance to license restrictions must be monitored by the team advisor. Any team which fails to conform to license restrictions will be disqualified.
      • Integration and use of all hardware, circuits, modules, commercial products, firmware or software offered by vendors or  sponsors or their development tools must be documented and acknowledged.
      • Student teams may not include students who are family members of any SDRF judges or members of the SDRF Board of Directors.
      • The selection process and decision of the SDRF judges will be final.

Phase 3 and subsequent Phases

    • Each year a new design and development challenge problem will be issued by the SDRF Smart Radio Challenge, continuing to challenge academic teams to compete in the development of SDR and Cognitive Radio technology demonstrations.
    • Qualified teams may continue in subsequent years to compete in subsequent design development contests, for as long as three original primary team members remain in the same academic institution, as long as the team remains qualified, and unless they have won a major prize. Teams do not need to requalify each year. Teams wishing to continue into subsequent phases must notify the SDRF AC of their intent to continue not later than Nov 30 of each year.
    • New teams may join the SDRF Smart Radio Challenge each year by registering their team for the qualifying questions not later than May 30.