Contest Sponsorship, Location, and Date

The Wireless Innovation Forum (previously the Software Defined Radio Forum) invites entries for the Software-Defined Radio Design Challenge, a student design contest. This contest is an activity of the Forum's Educational Special Interest Group and is hosted by Virginia Tech. Teams may opt to use software and support provided by MathWorks. The competition will take place on May 31, 2012 at the Wireless@Virginia Tech Symposium on Wireless Communications, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Proposals are due March 2, 2012.

Project Scope

Undergraduate and graduate students or teams of students, advised by a faculty member, are eligible and may propose and solve any problem related to software-defined radio. Example topics areas include:

• dynamic spectrum access
• public safety applications
• interoperability/ bridging
• position location
• signal classification
• link adaptation (power, modulation, coding, etc.)

Senior capstone or graduate thesis projects, class projects, sponsored projects, and independent projects are all eligible and may have already begun before the proposal due date.

At minimum each entry should include an implementation of a software-defined radio (SDR) link or receiver that can be demonstrated using available signals or using an experimental frequency allocation. The specific application and implementation are to be determined by the entrants. While a significant amount of original work is expected, use of available SDR hardware and software is encouraged.

Details of the spectrum allocation will be provided as they become available, but it is likely to include frequencies in the 400-500 MHz UHF band. Direct connections using RF cables and related hardware are also permitted if non-licensed frequencies are used.

Note: Participants will be responsible for complying with applicable export regulations.

Evaluation

Projects will be evaluated by wireless communications industry professionals. Projects by teams composed entirely of undergraduate students will be evaluated using the same criteria as other projects but will compete in a separate category. The size of each team will be taken into account in the evaluation. Evaluation criteria include:

• importance and timeliness of the problem addressed,
• performance of solution (e.g., minimum detectable signal/minimum SNR of receiver, demonstrated throughput and spectral efficiency of digital link)
• flexibility (e.g., multiband and/or multi-mode capability)
• degree of automation/adaptive capability
• ease of use/user interface
• size, weight, and power
• cost effectiveness

Important Dates

Proposals due: (3 page maximum) March 2, 2012

• The proposal should include a problem description, proposed solution, and estimated cost and time to complete the project.

Notification of acceptance: March 9, 2012

Mid-term update: (1 page maximum) April 13, 2012

• This report should describe the current status of the project and plans for completing it.
• It should also identify potential risks to completing the project and plans for mitigating these risks.
• The mid-term update is required in order for the team to be considered for a travel grant.

Demonstration and judging: May 31, 2012

At Competition:

• Project Report (10 page maximum): This report must describe the problem addressed and the proposed solution, and must include results and conclusions. The report may be published on the Wireless Innovation Forum and/or Wireless@Virginia Tech web sites.
• Presentation
• Live demonstration (encouraged) or video

Location and Registration

The contest will be held during Wireless@Virginia Tech’s annual symposium and summer school in Blacksburg, VA, May 30-June 1, 2012. The symposium is an excellent opportunity for learning and networking. It features many presentations, demonstrations, and tutorials. In addition, the symposium has international participation and attendees work in the wireless communications industry, government, and academia. Team members will be required to register for the symposium, but registration fee waivers and travel funds are available on a competitive basis. For lodging and registration information, please check the [symposium’s web page] (http://wireless.vt.edu/symposium/2012/).

Travel Grants

Travel funding and symposium registration fee waivers are available on a competitive basis, up to $2,000 per team.

Contact Information

Please send questions, notifications of intent to participate, and proposal submissions by email with subject beginning "SDR Contest:" to Dr. Carl Dietrich, cdietric@vt.edu.

Software Defined Radio Design Challenge projects may also be entered in the IEEE MTT Student Design Competition