Professor Wonbin Hong’s research team from POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering became the first Korean team to receive an award at the 2026 IEEE AP-S/URSI Student Design Contest (SDC). Team GAMMA, led by Sumin Kim and Jung-Hyo Lee, placed third among 56 participating teams.

The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), founded in 1949, is one of the world’s largest professional societies in the field of antennas and electromagnetic waves and has played a leading role in advancing research and technology in the field. The SDC is an international student competition in which undergraduate and graduate students form teams to design, build, and validate actual antenna systems. This year’s competition focused on the theme of Automotive Antennas, and only five teams out of 56 were selected as finalists to compete in the final round.

The award-winning project, “Glass-Integrated Automotive Multi-Service Multi-Antenna Assembly (GAMMA),” proposed a glass-integrated antenna system that supports the major frequency bands used in automotive communications. The team also presented a digital twin-inspired testbed designed to evaluate communication performance under conditions similar to an actual vehicle environment at relatively low cost.

In the nearly 80-year history of IEEE AP-S, no Korean team had previously been selected as an SDC finalist. Professor Wonbin Hong’s research team not only reached the finals but also won third place, marking a new milestone for Korean researchers in the competition.

Microwave, Antenna, Device and Systems (MADs Lab) @ POSTECH