SDR FORUM ANNOUNCES STUDENT ENGINEERING TEAMS QUALIFYING FOR ITS INAUGURAL SMART RADIO CHALLENGE

DENVER, CO, Nov. 21, 2006 -- At its annual Technical Conference last week in Orlando, Fla., the SDR Forum (www.sdrforum.org) announced the qualifying teams (EDITORS: PHOTOS AVAILABLE) in its first Smart Radio Challenge, 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 Superieur d'Electricite (Supelec), 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. Registration ended June 15, with 43 student teams from 12 different countries signing up, and teams needed to submit proposals specific to a Forum-defined problem by September 30. 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 250-kHz channels in the 5-MHz Family Radio Service (FRS) frequency band (462 to 467 MHz). The Supelec 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. More details can be found on the competition website, www.radiochallenge.org.

About the SDR Forum

The SDR Forum, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is an international industry association dedicated to supporting the development and deployment of software defined radio systems that enable flexible and adaptable architectures in advanced wireless systems. Presently numbering 100 organizations, the SDR Forum's membership spans commercial, defense and civil government organizations, including wireless service providers, network operators, component and equipment manufacturers, hardware and software developers, regulatory agencies, and academia from Asia, Europe, and North America. The SDR Forum's administrative office is headquartered in Denver, and its website is www.sdrforum.org.

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