WSPLC’16 Student Challenge: LoRa-PLC-SmartGrid

WSPLS 2016

WSPLC 2016

EDF-X-Renesas Synergy Student Challenge

This year, WSPLC will be accompanied by a student challenge on the topic “hybrid G3-PLC/radio solutions and associated applications”.

Participating students teams are expected to innovate, and develop software and systems for various, novel, use cases in the domain of smart grid (including but not limited to smart metering, smart city, smart home, electro-mobility, grid automation, renewable production…), using both G3-PLC and radio communications. For instance students may focus their work on the following technical topics of interest:

  • G3-PLC/LoRa medium selection depending on various indicators such as signal to noise ratio, packet loss rate, RF duty cycle constraints etc.
  • Development of a unified lower-layer network infrastructure for heterogeneous communicating devices (supporting PLC-only, RF-only or PLC+RF).
  • Smart home demand response application over a hybrid telecommunication network.
  • Renewable production control and monitoring.

Immediately after the WSPLC 2016 event, on October 12th and 13th, a two-day training session will be offered to the registered student teams with hands-on workshop on the Renesas Synergy starter kits, and technical training sessions on the G3-PLC and LoRa modems. At the end of the two days, the EDF-X-Renesas student challenge will be officially declared open.


Practical information:

Registration will open on August 22nd 2016 and close on September 23rd 2016.

Teams of up to 4 students will apply to the challenge by sending a two-page application letter to challenge@wsplc2016.fr. The letter, in English language, shall include:

  • A description of the project idea
  • A brief introduction of the participants
  • The name of the team’s academic adviser (typically a professor of the team’s university, or a professor from the university of one of the team’s members, in case all participants of a same team do not belong to the same university)

The ten selected student teams will be notified by September 30th after the review by the organizing team of the application letters provided based on the following criteria: relevance and timeliness, novelty and originality.

Each selected student team will be provided with two Platforms; a Platform is made of:

  • 1 Synergy starter kit SK-S7G2 supplied by Renesas Electronics Europe,
  • 1 Cool Phoenix G3-PLC modem supplied by Renesas Electronics Europe,
  • 1 LoRa modem supplied by Avnet Silica.

All participating student teams are encouraged to follow online tutorials and download Synergy Software package (available at http://www.renesassynergy.eu). Selected student teams attending the training session taking place on October 12th and 13th must have a functional Synergy Software package running on their computers.

The Platforms will be handed directly to the student teams on October 12th 2016 with the technical documentation and after signature of appropriate legal documents by each student team member. The student challenge will start on October 13th 2016 at the end of the training session.

Student teams will be invited to present their work (in English language) in 30 min to the jury within the last two weeks of March 2017 (dates to be announced subsequently).

Then, student teams will be able to finalize their work taking into account possible feedback from the jury. Student teams will deliver their final work in English language (including: 1. a comprehensive report describing the scope, methodology of execution and achievements of their work; 2. the source code of the applications developed with comprehensive documentation) by April 30th 2017.

All along the duration of the challenge, student teams may benefit from the technical support offered by the organizing team on the Synergy starter kit, the Cool Phoenix G3-PLC modem and the LoRa modem (dedicated mailing lists will be set up subsequently).

After the submission of the final work, the jury will notify the top 3 winning teams by May 31st 2017. The work carried out by each student team will be evaluated based on the following criteria: relevance and timeliness, novelty and originality, technical complexity, quality of implementation.

The top 3 winning teams will be invited to a one-day event taking place in 2017 at EDF R&D premises (date to be announced subsequently) on the broader topic of “PLC communications”. During the event, awards will be handed over to the winning teams who will also be given the opportunity to pitch their work and participate to a dedicated innovation/brainstorming session with EDF R&D researchers.

The student challenge and the participating teams will be presented at WSPLC 2016 by the organizing team. The student challenge rules will also be reminded on October 12th before starting the two-day training session.

WSPLS 2016 Logo

WSPLS 2016