Intel India has announced selection of 14 teams for the third and last phase of the year-long Intel India Research Challenge (IIRC), a research contest developed to inspire and support students engaged in research in Science and Engineering disciplines.

A pioneering initiative under the Intel Higher Education Program, IIRC has been organized in association with the Intel India Development Center, for students in their final year of graduation as also post graduate students.

The Intel Higher Education Program is a part of the Intel Education Initiative, which is focused on collaborating with educators around the world to improve the quality of Science and Mathematics education, and to help students develop higher level thinking skills they need to participate and succeed in a knowledge-based economy.

Out of the 1,000 entries received from 55 institutions in the first round of the contest, 45 teams comprising 128 students made their poster presentation on 22 and 23 January at the Intel India Design center to compete in the second phase of this contest. Each team which presented innovative concepts as posters were assigned an Intel technologist for 4 months as a mentor for consultation and assistance during the contest.

From these 45 teams, 14 teams have now been further shortlisted for the third phase of the contest. These teams will be given 4 months to develop their posters into actual projects.

Manav Subodh, India Higher Education Manager, Intel Technology India said, "IIRC offers a unique opportunity for students to get exposure to the industry as they work closely with their mentors, designated Intel technologists. It is a platform for students to develop problem solving and analytical skills as they attempt research to support their novel ideas. We aim to identify and reward many future Scientists and Engineers."

According to Intel sources, the objective of the contest this year is to motivate students to pursue higher education in Technology, improve the quality of research in the institutes selected (through mentoring and faculty development), show results and pass on the learnings so that similar contests are encouraged to develop the industry academia ecosystem.

This year 69 percent of students selected for the poster presentation contest hold a Bachelors' degree in Technology, 26 per cent hold a Masters degree in Technology, and the remaining are PhDs.

Entries, for IIRC, were invited from research areas such as, low power and high performance platform architecture, advanced Multi-core Platform Capabilities, advanced VLSI Design Techniques, Advanced Silicon Validation and Debug Techniques, and Signal Integrity.

14 teams have been selected for the third and last phase of the contest, including a project on decision support system for disease surveillance in rural India, Novel High-Speed Architecture for 32-bit ALU using Hybrid Logic Style, Real Time Braille Recognition with Sonic Feedback for Pocket PC, and a research project on Water Supply Surveillance System (WSSS).

The awards for IIRC 2006-07 include cash prizes ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000.