Ph.D. Student Kshitij Yadav and Professors Kinget and Kymissis Win $100K First Prize in the Interdigital Innovation Challenge

September 27, 2012

The 'Ultrasonic Wireless Sensors' team consisting of Ph.D. student Kshitij Yadav and Professors Peter Kinget and Ioannis Kymissis recently won the $100K first prize in the Interdigital Innovation Challenge. The winners were announced on September 21 at the GigaOM's Mobilize conference held in San Francisco. The competition drew entries from top universities all across the United States and Canada, and consisted of a written proposal submission round followed by an incubation-phase round in which the teams were interviewed and submitted a final proposal.

The ultrasonic wireless technology can extend the battery life of wireless sensor nodes by more than an order-of-magnitude. The team has built a custom integrated circuit to demonstrate the ultra-low power operation of this technology and field-tested proof-of-concept ultrasonic communication modules.