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Varsity Media Announces $600,000 Grant With National Science Foundation (NSF)

Posted on: Thursday, 8 October 2009, 10:56 CDT

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Varsity Media Group Acquisition Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Varsity Media Group Inc, announced today that Dr. Lee McKnight, Co-Founder of Wireless Grids Corporation has been awarded along with Syracuse University (Lead) and Virginia Tech (Co-Awardee) a National Science Foundation (NSF) two year grant totaling $600,000.00 for the Wireless Grid Testbed Initiative (WiGiT). This initiative will initially include faculty and students from Syracuse University and Virginia Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University and Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal, with plans to include other world leading academic institutions. Dr. Lee McKnight, will be the Principal Investigator of the Initiative along with Dr. Tamal Bose and will include leading researchers in wireless, grid and entrepreneurship fields. Participants and partners at the inception of the project, in addition to the academic institutions, include private sector organizations and corporate partners such as Clear Channel Radio; Qualcomm, Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC); SenSyr LLC; Center for Advanced Engineering & Research, Inc. (CAER); MOD-ECO; and Wireless Grids Corporation (WGC). Governmental and intergovernmental organizations involved in the Testbed project include: Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Portugal; and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France.

"The expansive collaboration driving this project is truly breathtaking," said Syracuse University Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. "It transcends disciplines, spans institutions, and crosses sectors--as well as oceans--to bring the best minds together to create game-changing technologies whose impact will be felt worldwide. Catalyzing creativity and innovation in this way is exactly what we aim to do at Syracuse University and we're thrilled that Lee McKnight is spearheading this project." "This NSF funding bears testimony to the exciting, forward-looking research that will be conducted by a stellar team who will be investigating the issues regarding standards that must be addressed to enable the bridging between wireless grids and cloud computing," said iSchool Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy. "Our faculty and students thrive on conducting research on leading-edge technologies and software. We see great potential in the contributions WiGiT can make to society."

The WiGiT will assist in refining transformative technologies to create markets, bridge the gap between wireless network middleware and grid application layers and accelerate commercialization and adoption of new products and services. WiGiT serves industry needs for intra-system, or crossover work bridging the world of grid or cloud computing and wireless Internet, by contributing to open standards and application programming interfaces for wireless grids. The main goal is to evaluate specifications for possible industry standards in order to scale and integrate the transformative innovation of wireless grids developed in a prior PPFR, with specifications and protocols developed in the NSFI/UCRC Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WiCAT), meshed with technologies and ideas from students, faculty and companies worldwide. WiGiT will determine the extent to which wireless grid computing may augment communication networks and standards such as the Internet, Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax and mobile WiMax for data transmission communication, collaboration, research, and for commercial purposes. WiGiT will test the VMG proprietary "edgeware" software that resides beyond the cloud, across edge networks devices, both wired and wireless.

As we announced earlier in the month, Varsity Media Acquisition Corp completed its merger with The Wireless Grid Corporation, which was spun out of Syracuse University to commercialize the research concepts and intellectual property produced in its labs. The WGC software based solution, is a next generation application that transforms computer networking and wireless infrastructures (all devices) ability to interact seamlessly with zero to little configuration. WGC has been recognized as one of the '9 Wireless Companies to Watch' (Network World, 8/2008). Along with its four pending patents, WGC's planned software products will allow devices to function interchangeably and some of the most recent highlights include:

• Intel® Certified Program Partner
• Nokia - Academic Research Support Partner
• Syracuse University - Academic Research Partner
• National Science Foundation (NSF) - Academic Research Support Partner
  

VMG is also very close to finalizing several additional announcements as it relates to leadership, product development and other significant relationships. Upon successful business integration of WGC in the VMG structures, VMG intends to expand beta testing of its software solution beginning late in the fall of 2009 with corporate and government agencies in the U.S., which could include partnerships with Intel, Sprint, Newhouse/Brighthouse, Twitter, Qualcomm, Clear Channel, National Science Foundation (NSF) and Syracuse Research Corporation.

Safe Harbor Statement: Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements". Such statements include statements relating to the recent Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation to the company and other statements relating to future events or to the company's future financial performance and are not historical facts, including statements which may be preceded by the words "intends," "may," "will," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "predicts," "estimates," "aims," "believes," "hopes," "potential" or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the company. Actual results may differ materially from the expectations contained in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include the risks that: (i) the company may be unsuccessful in commercially developing its products or in achieving market acceptance of new and relatively unproven technologies; (ii) the company will need to raise additional capital to meet its business requirements in the future and the company may not be able to do so on reasonable terms or at all; (iii) the company's proprietary intellectual property rights may not adequately protect its products and technologies; and (iv) the company expects intense competition in its target markets, including from companies that have much greater resources than the company, and there can be no assurance that the company will be able to compete effectively. More detailed information about the company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the company's Private Placement Memorandum. The company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Varsity Media Group

Source: PR Newswire

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