QUEEN'S LIFTS GOLD AND SILVER AT INAUGURAL MOBILE WORLD SCHOLAR CHALLENGE 

19 February 2018

The Centre for Wireless Innovation at Queen’s – part of ECIT, the Institute of Electronics, Communications & Information Technology – has picked up two awards in the inaugural Mobile World Scholar Challenge, organised by the GSMA, the Global System for Mobile Communications Association.

New for Mobile World Congress 2018, the Mobile World Scholar Challenge is a video-based competition designed to discover and highlight ground-breaking new technologies developed at universities around the globe.

Dr Neil Buchanan, a Lecturer in High Frequency Electronics from Queen’s Centre for Wireless Innovation, was one of five Gold Prize winners for Flat Self-Steered High Gain Antennas for 5G Networks in the video-based competition aimed at discovering and highlighting ground-breaking new technologies developed at universities around the globe.

Developed at Queen’s, technology originally created to track satellites in real-time has been fine-tuned to work in 5G networks where users can expect faster data transmissions.

Speaking about the Scholar Challenge, John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd said: “Embracing new ideas is the key to innovation and growth, be it an economy, an industry, a company, charity or individual.”

“At Mobile World Congress, we are constantly looking to showcase cutting-edge ideas poised to impact the mobile world, and the winners of this first Mobile World Scholar Challenge certainly represent this. Our congratulations to all of the winners, as well as everyone who submitted their innovations for consideration.”

Entries were received from universities on five continents in the inaugural Mobile World Scholar Challenge. Participants had to submit short-form videos promoting the science behind, and potential use cases for, their technology research. All winners received a cash award and videos will be presented at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (26 Feb-1 Mar), when over 100,000 professional visitors and more than 2,300 exhibitors are expected to attend.

Matthew Magill, a Postgraduate Research Student also from the Centre for Wireless Innovation at Queen’s, won one of three silver awards for Tissue-Independent Implantable Antenna for In-Body Communications. Together with his supervisor, Dr Gareth Conway, Matthew devised a new, robust, implantable antenna that maintains its return loss and radiation performance in a broad range of tissue types, in a wide range of patients. The innovative antenna will remove the current limitations of implantable medical devices and enhance future mobile health and medical wireless networks.

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors.

For further information on the awards and to view the winners’ videos, visit Mobile World Congress. Click here to view Dr Buchanan’s video.

General inquiries to Gerry Power, Communications Officer, Development and Alumni Relations Office; telephone: +44 (0)28 9097 5321.

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