A new annual contest with $20,000 in cash prizes, and an opportunity for students to present projects to a panel of industrial, academic, and media experts, has been created by telecom carrier TELUS Corp., Vancouver, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Teams will present their projects in writing and verbally to a panel of experts.
The IEEE TELUS Innovation Award invites student members of IEEE Canada, Dundas ON, in their final year of an engineering or technology program at a Canadian undergraduate institution, to submit a significant information computing and telecommunication (ICT) technologies project for which they are receiving education credit.
“We are very pleased that TELUS is sponsoring this award,” Bill Kennedy, president of IEEE Canada, says. “IEEE student members are excited about this competition. It will give them an opportunity to test their ideas against each other.”
Individuals or teams of up to five students can submit projects to their IEEE student group for initial judging. Each branch can then send two projects to regional competitions, in Eastern, Central, and Western Canada. Three finalists will be selected from each region and will face off in the national competition in Vancouver, sponsored by TELUS.
“Canadian researchers continue to make significant contributions to advances in electronics, computing, and communications technology,” Ibrahim Gedeon, TELUS chief technology officer, says. “TELUS wants to play an important role in encouraging and supporting the development of young researchers. This contest will stimulate interest in the networking and IT technologies important for the realization of TELUS’ vision of a converged IP network and the Future Friendly Home.”
Judges are looking for projects with strong design and research components that embody the spirit of innovation and have a realistic chance of being applied in industry in the near future. TELUS will pay travel costs of the teams attending the national competition in Vancouver and will grant the winning team a cash prize.
