InterDigital and Calit2 Collaborate on Innovation Challenge

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InterDigital (NASDAQ: IDCC) announced the InterDigital Innovation Challenge (I²C), a wireless technology research contest in collaboration with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California,San Diego.  To be formally launched in early 2012, the I²C will nurture and accelerate innovation in advanced wireless technologies and shall be open to students and faculty of any North American University.

Under its extensive university relations program, InterDigital is making a multi-year charitable donation to Calit2, funding the engineering contest. The I²C will enable Calit2 at UC San Diego to further its mission and strategic plan to extend its influence and reach into innovations in wireless technology in academia and industry. In alignment with the forward-thinking mindset of both organizations, the contest is aimed to discover breakthroughs in radio signal propagation and processing, radio modem innovations, radio network management and systems innovations, compression and data management techniques, energy improvement in radio processing and wireless and network virtualization.  The submissions will be evaluated by a judging panel comprised of participants from academia and industry, and $175,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the top entries, including $100,000 for the winning team or individual.

“We see this contest as a great way of stimulating innovation in the wireless arena, similar to the currently underway DARPA Shredder Challenge,” remarked Calit2 Divisional Director Ramesh Rao. “We have an outstanding group of wireless researchers and I’m sure they’ll be looking forward to competing in this national competition. The promise of a $100K award is bound to capture the imagination of our students, researchers and faculty."

“As a leader in the development of advanced wireless technologies, InterDigital is proud to work with Calit2 – widely recognized as one to the world’s premier academic research institutions – on creating a platform that will bring together some of the best and brightest in the field,” said William J. Merritt, InterDigital's president and chief executive officer. “Given the strong support and leadership of Calit2, we are confident that the InterDigital Innovation Challenge will generate a number of technical breakthroughs and fresh thinking that will help shape the future of wireless.”

InterDigital maintains comprehensive and rewarding relationships with close to twenty prominent educational institutions across the United States, Canada and Europe.  In addition, members of the InterDigital research staff teach graduate courses, mentor students and serve on advisory boards at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Villanova, Rutgers, Drexel, UC San Diego, New Jersey Institute of Technology and New York Institute of Technology.  Through a combination of internships, special project grants, memberships in their respective research centers and sponsored studies, InterDigital gains exposure to relevant leading-edge academic research and tomorrow’s top engineering talent.

About Calit2 at U.C. San Diego

The UC San Diego Division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), together with Calit2’s division at U.C. Irvine, houses more than 1,000 researchers across the two campuses, organized around more than 50 projects on the future of telecommunications and information technology and how these technologies will transform a range of applications important to the California economy and its citizens’ quality of life.

About InterDigital®

InterDigital develops fundamental wireless technologies that are at the core of mobile devices, networks and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry's most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks and a richer multimedia experience years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world's leading wireless companies.

InterDigital is a registered trademark of InterDigital, Inc. For more information, visit the InterDigital website: www.interdigital.com