DARPA reveals latest Grand Challenge details

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the details for its latest Grand Challenge on Wednesday – ensuring that the rapidly growing number of military and civilian wireless devices can function with the increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum.

DARPA officials revealed the new Challenge’s details in front of approximately 8,000 engineers and communications professionals gathered at the International Wireless Communications Expo in Las Vegas.

“DARPA Challenges have traditionally rewarded teams that dominate their competitors, but when it comes to making the most of the electromagnetic spectrum, the team that shares most intelligently is going to win,” SC2 Program Manager Paul Tilghman of DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) said. “We want to radically accelerate the development of machine-learning technologies and strategies that will allow on-the-fly sharing of spectrum at machine timescales.”

The Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) is designed to reward smart systems that can cooperate with the crowded modern day environment in the radio spectrum, making it much easier for human beings to manage and maintain radio frequency waves in a fast-paced environment.

“The current practice of assigning fixed frequencies for various uses irrespective of actual, moment-to-moment demand is simply too inefficient to keep up with actual demand and threatens to undermine wireless reliability,” William Chappell, director of the MTO, said.