Drexel University’s Dragon Radio team, co-advised by ECE’s Dr. Kapil Dandekar and CCI’s Dr. Geoffrey Mainland, placed eighth globally in DARPA’s highly-competitive Spectrum Collaboration Challenge at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Los Angeles. The competition, comprised of other universities, start-ups, and researchers, was for a for a $2 million grand prize. The Dragon Radio team staved off a team from Northeastern University in the second round, but was eliminated in round three. The competition was ultimately won by a team from the University of Florida.
“I am very proud that our team got as far as we did,” said Dr. Dandekar, “and am very thankful to Professor Geoffrey Mainland for his herculean efforts in getting us so far in the competition and to the finals. Alex Lackpour, a PhD student in my lab, also represented us very well in the competition.”
Team Dragon Radio consisted of Dr. Geoffrey Mainland, Dr. Kapil Dandekar, and his PhD student Alex Lackpour, as well as six other Drexel students. For more information about Team Dragon Radio’s journey to the competition, click here. The team used a version of their competition radio from a graduate laboratory course co-taught by Professor Mainland and Professor Dandekar last summer. More information about the Spectrum Collaboration Challenge can be found on their website, and a video about Team Dragon Radio can be viewed here.