IEEE Signal Processing Cup 2021
IEEE Signal Processing Cup 2021
Configuring an Intelligent Reflecting Surface for Wireless Communications

The IEEE Signal Processing Society is proud to announce the eight edition of the Signal Processing Cup: an exciting challenge to control a wireless propagation environment using an intelligent reflecting surface.
Goal: An intelligent reflecting surface is a two-dimensional array of metamaterial whose interaction with electromagnetic waves can be controlled, e.g., by tuning the impedance variations over the surface. These surfaces might be used in 6G to direct wireless signals from a transmitter towards a receiver. The goal of the challenge is to characterize the behavior of an intelligent reflecting surface based on data from over-the-air signaling and develop a control algorithm to configure the surface to aid wireless communications.
Eligibility: Any team composed of one faculty member, at most one graduate student and 3-10 undergraduate students is welcomed to join the open competition.
Dataset: A novel dataset with transmitted and received signals, for different configurations, is provided for the challenge.
Prize: The three teams with highest performance in the open competition will be selected as finalists and will be invited to participate in the final competition at ICASSP 2021. The champion team will receive a grand prize of $5,000. The first and the second runner-up will receive a prize of $2,500 and $1,500, respectively, in addition to travel grants and complimentary conference registrations.
Organizer: Emil Björnson, Linköping University, Sweden
Additional details and data available on Monday, 1 February 2021 at GitHub.
Important Dates
- Release of dataset and detailed instructions: February 1, 2021
- Submission deadline: April 26, 2021
- Register: Registration Link
- Team registration to the organizer: March 15, 2021
- Finalists Announcement: May 3, 2021
- Final @ICASSP: June 6-11, 2021
Finalist Teams
Grand Prize Team Name: T-Cubed University of Moratuwa Supervisor: Prathapasinghe Dharmawansa Students: Amashi Niwarthana Harindu Jayarathne Kithmini Herath Pamuditha Somarathne Ramith Hettiarachchi Tharindu Samarakoon Tharindu Wickremasinghe Thieshanthan Arulmolivarman |
First Runner-Up Team Name: AGH AGH University of Science and Technology Supervisor: Konrad Kowalczyk Tutor: Szymon Woźniak Students: Aleksander Strzeboński Mateusz Wojtulewicz Michał Antos Piotr Radecki |
Second Runner-Up Team Name: UnBounded University of Brasilia Supervisor: Marcelo Menezes de Carvalho Students: Gustavo Viana Penido Hiandra Tomasi Rodrigo Fischer |