AT&T and Nokia Siemens Networks Award $100,000 to Georgia Institute of Technology Students for Creating Next-generation Mobile Applications

* Mobile technology leaders team up for research competition to create

innovative mobile multimedia applications

* Competing students trained as future innovators in the field of mobile

communications

* Innovative approach to technology education taking place at the Georgia

Institute of Technology

* Grand prize winner receives check for $35,000 and an internship offer at

Nokia Siemens Networks

    ATLANTA, May 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Fifteen students at The
 Georgia Institute of Technology were awarded $100,000 in cash prizes for
 creating next-generation mobile applications as part of the 2007 IMS
 Research Competition, co-sponsored by AT&T and Nokia Siemens Networks, and
 supervised by the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) and the Georgia
 Tech Research Network Operations Center (GT RNOC). In all, nearly 40
 students participated in the competition's final round.
     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070502/AQW060)
     The competition, which began last October, awarded prizes to the six
 student teams that created the most innovative mobile communications
 applications for use by families, campus communities, young adults/teens,
 or business users. To develop these applications, students utilized the
 3G/IMS laboratory at The Georgia Institute of Technology, a $5 million
 state-of-the-art communications lab that opened last October through a
 co-sponsorship by Nokia Siemens Networks and AT&T. The lab serves students
 and researchers as a test bed for the creation of third generation IP
 Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) convergence applications and services that bring
 together audio, video and data over a variety of networks.
     "Nokia Siemens Networks, AT&T and The Georgia Institute of Technology
 have created a unique learning experience and an innovative approach to
 technology education," said Ron Hutchins, associate vice provost for
 research and technology and chief technology officer at Georgia Tech. "By
 giving our students a hands-on opportunity to develop, experience and
 operate new technologies and applications and see them at work, the IMS
 Research Competition and the 3G/IMS lab play an important role in helping
 develop future innovators in the field of mobile communications."
     The competitors covered a diverse range of wireless technologies and
 use cases to achieve commercial appeal for various demographic groups.
 Award winners included:
     Grand Prize and Campus Community Category Winner: Christian Menkens
 from St. Wolfgang, Austria; Matthew Rhodes from Angleton, Texas; Anders
 Davoust from, Vaxjo, Sweden and Nikls Kjellin from Enkoping, Sweden will be
 awarded $35,000 to split and each will be offered internships by Nokia
 Siemens Networks on work that will leverage their project experience, for
 their creation of SoCoNet, a social campus community network that gives
 students access to lecture materials, campus events and location-based
 social networking.
     Four teams were named first prize winners in the remaining categories,
 and each will be awarded $15,000 to split among team members:
     Business User Category Winner: Dannon Teremiah Baker from Augusta,
 Georgia; David McCann from Lawrenceville, Georgia and John Etherton from
 Jacksonville, Fla. were awarded for their creation of Distributed Asset
 Tracking, an inventory and asset management application that enables
 camera-phones to scan barcodes and track inventory, without the need for
 separate RFID or scanning devices.
     IMS Enabling Category Winner: Vinesh "Vinny" Ramachandran from Dalton,
 Georgia was awarded for his creation of Extensible Triggering Services, an
 application that allows a network to make changes to a particular phone's
 settings, based on the user's presence and preferences.
     Young Adults/Teens Category Winner: Gaurishankar "Shanks" Krishnan from
 Bangalore, India and Shivam Goyal from Bhopal, India were awarded for their
 creation of mobMedia, a location-based media sharing and social networking
 application.
     Family Category Winner: Devin Hunt from Atlanta and David Jimison from
 Washington, D.C. were awarded for their creation of Kinship, a distributed
 live video sharing application that instantly uploads video to a server and
 also provides video sharing, location-based video collaboration and chat
 features.
     Honorable mention was awarded to the team of Robert Watts from
 Dunwoody, Georgia; Andrew Trusty from Atlanta and Priyanka Mahalanabis from
 Decatur, Georgia for their creation of Family Game Suite, a network gaming
 server application that allows a family to play games against each other
 and simultaneously chat on their mobile devices. This team will be awarded
 $5,000 to split among team members.
     "We congratulate all of the students who competed in this contest for
 their achievements and innovations in mobile communications," said Mark
 Louison, North America Region Head, Nokia Siemens Networks. "By 2015, we
 estimate 5 billion people worldwide will enjoy the benefits of being
 connected all the time, and mobile applications are key to this notion. The
 students who participated in this competition have a great opportunity to
 be among the future innovators who bring a unique set of products and
 solutions to people around the world."
     "This program is a win for all involved. Through this competition, we
 support individual Georgia Tech students, Georgia Tech as a whole, and
 promote IMS technology, which will allow the industry to deliver fixed
 mobile convergence to its customers and usher in a new era in multimedia
 capabilities between mobile devices and traditional computers and
 televisions," said Jim Ryan, vice president of consumer data products,
 AT&T's wireless unit.
     For more information on the IMS Research Competition and a copy of the
 Official Rules, visit http://forgedbyims-research-competition.com.
     Find More Information Online
 
     Web Site Links:
 
     AT&T:  http://www.att.com
 
     Georgia Institute of Technology:    http://www.gatech.edu/
 
     Nokia Siemens Networks:    http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
 
     Georgia Electronic Design Center:  http://rnoc.gatech.edu
 
     IMS Research Competition:  http://forgedbyims-research-competition.com
     Editor's Note:
     IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an open industry standard for voice
 and multimedia communications over packet-based IP networks, defined by the
 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a global standards body for 3rd
 generation mobile technology. IMS is a core network technology that can
 deliver Internet and IP multimedia services to consumers, across any type
 of access technology, including DSL, WiMAX, GPRS, WLAN and others.
 Operators deploying IMS can deliver new services to consumers at lower
 costs and with IMS-based services, consumers can enjoy a richer
 communications experience, with the ability to access information and
 services using virtually any type of device and any type of access
 technology -- and communicate with virtually anyone, anywhere, anytime.
     About AT&T
     AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries
 and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T
 services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings
 are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and
 the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice
 services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing
 and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM
 organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields
 as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration
 strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional
 information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T
 subsidiaries and affiliates is available at www.att.com.
     (C) 2007 AT&T Knowledge Ventures. All rights reserved. AT&T and the
 AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Knowledge Ventures.
     About Georgia Tech
     The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation's premiere
 research universities. Ranked ninth among U.S. News & World Report's top
 public universities, Georgia Tech educates more than 17,000 students every
 year through its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal
 Arts, Management and Sciences. Tech maintains a diverse campus and is among
 the nation's top producers of women and African-American engineers. The
 Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate
 students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the
 Georgia Tech Research Institute. During the 2004-2005 academic year,
 Georgia Tech reached $357 million in new research award funding. The
 Institute also maintains an international presence with campuses in France
 and Singapore and partnerships throughout the world. More about Georgia
 Tech at http://www.gatech.edu
     About GEDC
     The Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) supports world-class
 research that fosters the development of new communications technology in
 wireless/RF, wired/copper and fiber channel applications. Home of the
 nation's largest university-based mixed-signal research team, Georgia
 Tech's GEDC collaborates with more than 45 member companies and federal
 agency partners, conducting approximately $12 million in research each
 year. More about GEDC at www.gedcenter.org.
     About GT-RNOC
     The Georgia Tech Research Network Operations Center is a research
 program working in the areas of measurement, management, security and
 control of networks, network services, computational resources and
 enterprise systems. It includes researchers and facilities from across
 Georgia Tech as well as partners from industry and other institutions. The
 GT-RNOC leverages the unique position of GT as a pre-eminent network and
 network service hub in the state, the region and increasingly in the world.
 It provides researchers with access to this unique network infrastructure.
 It provides network administrators and service providers with an invaluable
 tool for developing and testing new management solutions in a cutting edge
 environment. More about the GT-RNOC at http://rnoc.gatech.edu.
     About Nokia Siemens Networks
     Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of communications
 services. The company provides a complete, well-balanced product portfolio
 of mobile and fixed network infrastructure solutions and addresses the
 growing demand for services with 20,000 service professionals worldwide.
 The combined pro-forma net sales of 17.1 billion Euro in fiscal year 2006
 make Nokia Siemens Networks one of the largest telecommunications
 infrastructure companies. Nokia Siemens Networks has operations in some 150
 countries and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It combines Nokia's
 Networks Business Group and the carrier related businesses of Siemens
 Communications. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
 
 

SOURCE Nokia Siemens Networks