WILMINGTON, Del., Aug. 11, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InterDigital, Inc., a mobile technology research and development company, today announced that the company will sponsor the Smart@AC application challenge set to kick off on September 25, 2015. The application challenge is part of its smart cities-focused project HotSprings, spearheaded by InterDigital’s Innovation Partners Group and the Institute for Management Cybernetics e.V. (IfU) in Aachen Germany.

By 2007, half of the world’s population was already living in cities, and the trend toward further urbanization has continued to grow. Developed countries have been leaders in this trend with statistics from 2012 Revision of World Population Prospects highlighting that 74% of the population in Germany and 82% in the United States lived in cities. The rapid growth in urban populations has created new challenges for all parts of modern city life. “One possibility to master these challenges lies in the development of smarter cities to enhance the quality of life, economic compatibility and ecologic sustainability,” explains Max Haberstroh, senior researcher at IfU. “In these cities, data and communications will be the platform on which innovations occur so we are looking for ways to make it accessible and useable by all citizens.”

The HotSprings project team is researching next generation data processing, enrichment, analysis, and wide scale availability for local, regional, and international data sources that include the city of Aachen as well as other international cities including Barcelona, Copenhagen, Vienna, New York, and San Francisco. The key to the success for this project is the building of a broad network of cooperation partners such as the city government of Aachen, and local commercial and strategic stakeholders in order to establish a sustainable and innovative ecosystem for the development of a multitude of smart city solutions.

“Smart cities and Internet of Things are key areas of research at InterDigital, both in our own research and through our efforts with partners like the IfU. As the HotSprings project sponsor, we are excited to work with the world class research team at the IfU to build upon a vision we developed as part of Creating the Living Network,” said Jeffrey Metzger, Strategic Partner Development, InterDigital Communications, Inc. “A critical element in the development of this vision is engagement of the best and brightest in the community with a first engagement phase focused on generating new smart city applications.”

For further information regarding participation in the Smart@AC challenge, please visit www.hotsprings.io.

About InterDigital®

InterDigital develops technologies that are at the core of mobile devices, networks, and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry's most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks and a richer multimedia experience years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world's leading wireless companies. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on NASDAQ and is included in the S&P MidCap 400® index.

InterDigital is a registered trademark of InterDigital, Inc.

For more information, visit: www.interdigital.com.

InterDigital Contact:
Patrick Van de Wille
Email: patrick.vandewille@interdigital.com 
+1 (858) 210-4814

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