Georgia Tech Students Win $100,000 from AT&T and Nokia Siemens Networks in Competition to Develop Multimedia Mobile Applications  

            Atlanta (May 2, 2007) -- Fifteen students at the Georgia Institute of Technology were awarded $100,000 in cash prizes for creating next-generation mobile applications as part of the 2007 IMS Research Competition.
            The competition was co-sponsored by AT&T and Nokia Siemens Networks and supervised by the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) and the Georgia Tech Research Network Operations Center (GT RNOC).
            The competition, which began last October, awarded prizes to the six student teams that created the most innovative mobile communications applications for use by families, campus communities, young adults/teens, or business users. In all, nearly 40 students participated in the competition’s final round.
             To develop these applications, students utilized the Georgia Tech 3G/IMS laboratory,  a $5 million state-of-the-art communications lab that opened last October through a co-sponsorship by Nokia Siemens Networks and AT&T. The lab serves students and researchers as a test bed for the creation of third-generation IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) convergence applications and services that bring together audio, video and data over a variety of networks.
            “The Georgia Tech IMS laboratory is an important addition to GEDC’s extensive array of testbeds and laboratories,” said Joy Laskar, director of GEDC. “As the IMS Competition has shown, this facility is highly useful in training students and helping them to become strong assets to industry.”
            Ron Hutchins, associate vice provost for research and technology and chief technology officer at Georgia Tech, said, “Nokia Siemens Networks, AT&T and the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a unique learning experience and an innovative approach to technology education.”
            Hutchins added, “By giving our students a hands-on opportunity to develop, experience and operate new technologies and applications and see them at work, the IMS Research Competition and the 3G/IMS lab play an important role in helping develop future innovators in the field of mobile communications.”

            The competitors covered a diverse range of wireless technologies with potential commercial appeal for various demographic groups.

A four-person Georgia Tech student team will split the $35,000 Grand Prize in the 2007 IMS Research Competition. Pictured here, left to right, are Mark Louison, North America region head of Nokia Siemens Networks; Nils Kjellin; Jim Ryan, vice president of consumer data products for ATT’s wireless unit; Matthew Rhodes; Anders Davoust; Ron Hutchins, chief technology officer of Georgia Tech, and Christian Menkens.

            Grand Prize and Campus Community Category – The winners were Christian Menkens from St. Wolfgang, Austria; Matthew Rhodes from Angleton, Texas; Anders Davoust from Vaxjo, Sweden, and Nikls Kjellin from Enkoping, Sweden.  They will split $35,000 and each will be offered internships by Nokia Siemens Networks on work that will utilize their project experience.  Their creation was SoCoNet, a social campus community network that gives students access to lecture materials, campus events and location-based social networking.

            Four teams were named first prize winners in the remaining categories, and each will be awarded $15,000 to split among team members:
            Business User Category -- Dannon Teremiah Baker from Augusta, Georgia; David McCann from Lawrenceville, Georgia, and John Etherton from Jacksonville, Fla., won for their creation of Distributed Asset Tracking, an inventory and asset management application that enables camera-phones to scan barcodes and track inventory without the need for separate RFID or scanning devices.
            IMS Enabling Category -- Vinesh “Vinny” Ramachandran from Dalton, Georgia, won for his creation of Extensible Triggering Services, an application that allows a network to make changes to a particular phone’s settings based on the user’s presence and preferences.
            Young Adults/Teens Category -- Gaurishankar “Shanks” Krishnan from Bangalore, India, and Shivam Goyal from Bhopal, India, won for their creation of mobMedia, a location-based media sharing and social networking application.
            Family Category -- Devin Hunt from Atlanta and David Jimison from Washington, D.C., won for their creation of Kinship, a distributed live video sharing application that instantly uploads video to a server and also provides video sharing, location-based video collaboration and chat features.
            Honorable mention was awarded to the team of Robert Watts from Dunwoody, Georgia; Andrew Trusty from Atlanta, and Priyanka Mahalanabis from Decatur, Georgia, for their creation of Family Game Suite, a network gaming server application that allows a family to play games against each other and simultaneously chat on their mobile devices. This team will be awarded $5,000 to split among team members.

            Mark Louison, North America Region Head, Nokia Siemens Networks, said,
 “We congratulate all of the students who competed in this contest for their achievements and innovations in mobile communications. By 2015, we estimate 5 billion people worldwide will enjoy the benefits of being connected all the time, and mobile applications are key to this notion. The students who participated in this competition have a great opportunity to be among the future innovators who bring a unique set of products and solutions to people around the world.”
            For more information on the IMS Research Competition and a copy of the Official Rules, visit http://forgedbyims-research-competition.com.