Nokia Sponsor Real-Time Digital Signal Processing Laboratory

The Department of Communication Systems at Lancaster has won a prestigious award from mobile communications giant Nokia to help develop teaching in the department.

Nokia has committed itself to developing and maintaining links with Universities highly dedicated to research in mobile communication technologies through funding awards. These awards are subject to competitive bidding and the Department of Communications systems has been successful in its recent application This link represents a significant opportunity for Lancaster University to be involved with one of the leading organisation in the mobile industry.

This award covers the annual provision of 'Best Projects' with student prizes of £500 for the best final year undergraduate project and £800 for the best MSc project. Additionally, Nokia have contributed towards the improvement of teaching facilities with the development of the Nokia sponsored Real-Time Digital Signal Processing laboratory.

Every single mobile phone in the world today has at its heart a DSP device and being able to program these devices effectively is an important skill for any student entering the world of mobile. This facility has been upgraded at an overall cost of £63K and will allow students, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, access to the very latest DSP hardware.

Furthermore, the Department is bidding for an extension of support to cover development of mobile software applications. This support would primarily be aimed at a new MSc, currently under consideration, covering 'Mobile Gaming and Mcommerce'. Mobile games are predicted to be the largest generators of revenue for 3rd Generation (3G) mobile technologies and the environment offers unique challenges for commercial applications. This course will be unique within the UK in that it will be specifically aimed at producing students with the skills and knowledge base to leverage the maximum opportunities from the emerging 3G systems. The Northwest has a successful history in the field of computer games and this course will extend this knowledge to mobile applications.