March 24, 2018
Precision Optical Technologies Engineer Wins $750,000 in Team Effort at DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an organization focused on breakthrough technologies for national security, recently announced first round winners of the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2). Spanning over the course of 3 years, the competition includes two preliminary events and a grand finale which will be held at Mobile World Congress Americas in 2019.
Hosted by DARPA, SC2 invited teams to develop innovative contributions to radio network design technologies and solutions to the scarcity of the RF spectrum. In total, 19 teams – including corporate entities, nationwide academia and independent representatives – worked to develop advancements in RF spectrum sharing technologies. Winning teams were chosen algorithmically based on their delivery of QoS marked IP data between wireless connected nodes. All participants in Preliminary Event 1 will advance to the next stage of the competition.
“Team Erebus”, comprised of Brent Josefiak, Brian Padalino, and Rusty Eller, placed 4th overall in the Preliminary Event and were given a cash prize to further develop their concept.
As an active member of Precision Optical Technologies’ Photonics Division, Brent Josefiak believes that his team’s concept will positively impact developments within Precision Optical Technologies and the RF industry as a whole, stating:
“This technology is important to address spectral congestion with the introduction of 5G and ever denser RF networks. Expertise in this area will allow us to develop products that can operate successfully in these environments.”
The top 10 teams will advance to the next phase of the competition. SC2 Preliminary Event #2 will take place in December 2018 at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
