DARPA’s Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2)–the first collaborative machine-intelligence competition aimed at overcoming spectrum scarcity–held a preliminary event on December 13, 2017, at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Nineteen teams from around the world came together to participate, and the top 10 finishers each walked away with $750,000 in prize money. The winning teams demonstrated the software-defined radio designs that were most effective at collaborating with other radio designs to jointly optimize spectrum usage.

The next preliminary event–slated for December 2018–will further challenge competitors with an interference environment beyond what existing commercial and military radios can handle. SC2 will conclude in a live finale alongside the 2019 Mobile World Congress Americas (MWCA) annual conference and exhibition.