All eligible students or student teams are invited to participate in the International Microwave Symposium 2020 Student Design Competitions (SDCs). The competition encourages students to employ creative problem solving and gain practical design experience by developing a circuit, or system to address a problem stated in the competition rules while following specified constraints. The students will bring their designs to the competition where they perform measurements and compete against other student teams. The winning teams are awarded cash prizes and recognized at the IMS student luncheon awards. In the IMS 2020 SDC we have 12 different competitions spanning a wide range of topics from power amplifier design to spectral sensing radios. Links to descriptions and rules for each competition rules are below.Winning teams are awarded cash prizes and a chance to publish their designs in the IEEE Microwave Magazine.
Design Competition Topics
Click the links below to download the individual competition descriptions and rules
SDC1 Switched Acoustic Filter Modules
SDC2 5G Wideband 3.4-3.8 GHz Receiver
SDC3 13.56 MHz High Efficiency Power Amplifier
SDC4 Exploring 5G: Design of a 26 GHz filter
SDC5 Spectrum Sensing radio Receiver
SDC6 High Efficiency Power Amplifiers
SDC7 Linear HPA Design with Behavioral Model
SDC8 Wide Frequency Coverage Tunable Bandstop Filter
SDC10 Microwave Energy Harvesting
SDC11 High Sensitivity Motion Radar
SDC12 Microwave Photonic Link Receiver
The student design competitions will take place on Tuesday, 23 June, 2020, with the competition winners recognized at the Student Awards Luncheon on Thursday, 25 June, 2020. Student competitors should be aware that the IMS will not assist participants in getting necessary equipment or designed circuits/systems into the United States.
How to Participate
To participate in a competition, click the link below and follow the instructions. You will be asked to provide contact information for all team members and your academic advisor, and you will also need to upload a short abstract describing your design approach. In addition, your academic advisor must send an email to the organizers of the competition certifying that the work is yours, not theirs. The application deadline is 29 May 2020. Students are advised to contact the individual competition organizers as early as possible, to ensure a full understanding of the design specifications and judging criteria before beginning their projects.
Click here to submit your application
General Rules and Requirements
Note: Some competitions have requirements which are different than those listed below. Where stated, each individual competition's specific rules and deadlines will supersede these general rules.
- Teams may consist of 1-4 people.
- All team members must be full-time students while working on the project.
- At least one team member must register for IMS2020 and attend the student design competitions on Tuesday, 23 June 2020 in order to assist with measurements (where applicable) and answer questions.
- You must notify the student design competition organizers at least one week before the date of the competitions if you plan to withdraw or will not be able to participate in person. Failure to participate in person may prevent you from being accepted for future participation.
- Your professors and advisors must certify that this is your work, not theirs.
- You must submit a competition application form no later than 27 March 2020, or as indicated in the rules of the competition of interest. You are encouraged to contact the coordinators of the competition of your interest as early as possible to ensure a full understanding of the design specifications and judging criteria before your submission.
- Travel visas and shipping your project equipment are your responsibility.
Student Design Competitions are sponsored by the Technical Committees of the MTT. Each committee has been given $2000 in prize money if they choose to sponsor a competition in their technical area. Not all technical committees participate in the competition every year. Each will make their own rules for the competitions that they sponsor.
Contact Information
General questions or comments can be directed to the IMS2020 Student Design Competition Committee Co-Chairs, Michael Thorburn or Adrian Tang, via email at m.a.thorburn@ieee.org.
Questions or comments regarding a specific design competition should be directed to the organizers of the competition in question which will be listed on the competition descriptions (links above).
