Special Event Kicks Off 2008 IMS Research Competition as Nokia Siemens, AT&T Continue Support

            ATLANTA – A gala November kickoff event signaled the start of the 2008 IMS Research Competition at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  This is the second year that all Georgia Tech students have the opportunity to form teams and compete with one another to create next-generation applications for use in mobile devices.
            Nokia Siemens Networks and AT&T are again partnering to support the competition, which is facilitated by an on-campus partnership between the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) and the Georgia Tech Mobilesphere.
            “We’re delighted that Nokia Siemens and AT&T are continuing support for the IMS competition,” said Joy Laskar, director of GEDC. “The Georgia Tech IMS laboratory is an important addition to GEDC’s array of testbeds, and has already proved very useful in helping students train for industry.”
            Multidisciplinary student teams will compete to develop prize-winning business plans and prototypes based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) convergence platform. IMS technology brings together voice, video and data over diverse networks and provides enabling features such as presence, group list management, and location.
            In January 2008, student teams will submit entries to compete in the competition. In April 2008, $45,000 in cash awards will be presented to the student teams that have developed the best entries. The competition is also supported by a number of Georgia Tech classes in a variety of departments.
            More than 200 people attended the Nov. 28 kickoff, which featured competition information, an industry panel and technology demonstrations by researchers and industry.
            The first IMS competition, which began October 2006, awarded cash prizes to six student teams that created mobile applications judged to be the most innovative.  In all, more than 40 students participated in that competition’s final round.
            To create their applications, students utilize the Georgia Tech 3G/IMS laboratory, a $5 million state-of-the-art communications lab that opened in October 2006 through a co-sponsorship by Nokia Siemens Networks and AT&T.  The lab, located in Georgia Tech ‘s Technology Square Research Building, is operated by GTMobilesphere to serve Georgia Tech faculty and student researchers as an IMS test bed.