3GPP Excellence Award
The 3GPP Excellence Award recognises an individuals’ contribution to a 3GPP Working Group during the year.
Nominations are submitted by the WG Chair – for consideration at the December TSG Plenary meetings. As soon as the 3GPP TSG leadership have deliberated and decided on a maximum of four awards for the year; the traditional totems are manufactured and sent to the Working Group Chair, for their presentation during the next WG meeting.
This page is a permanent tribute to the individuals who have received the Award.
The Award Roll of Honour
Year Recipient Working Group Chairs’ Citation
A big thank you to Yizhi Yao for his outstanding contribution to 3GPP! His expertise, spirit of cooperation and perseverance are a reference for all 3GPP delegates.
In Rel-18 the ’Study on AI/ML management’ was one of the most complicated topics in SA5. The SID was successfully concluded in 2023 with the great coordination efforts from Yizhi Yao. The corresponding work item ‘AI/ML management’ is expected to be finalized within the Rel-18 time frame. During the preparation of Rel-19 work, Yizhi Yao took the moderator role to facilitate the corresponding Rel-19 “AI/ML management phase2” topic discussion and managed to reach group agreement on the objectives for further study in the area.
Lan Zou, Chair of SA Working Group 5
Award Format
The following format and procedure was created after a consultation with officials during TSG SA#54.
“The 3GPP Excellence Award” will be presented at the next Working Group meeting, following the December TSG SA Plenary. Details of the Award will be added to a permanent Roll-of-honour.
Awards Panel
The Awards Panel consists of the three TSG Chairmen. The panel will consider the proposed candidates for an Award, in private and without the need for a Minuted discussion. They will make their decision by seeking consensus between them, under the Chairmanship of the TSG SA Chair.
Award Procedure
To maintain the integrity of the process and to avoid personal disappointment, the 3GPP Excellence Award procedure should be a secret process. The following procedure should be carried out without the knowledge of the nominated person, or any other person not directly involved in the process.
- Individuals, not groups, must be nominated by a sitting Working Group Chair. A maximum of ONE candidate per calendar year may be nominated by each Working Group.
- Nomination form must be received prior to (and not during) the TSG SA December plenary (NB: For the 2023 Awards, the deadline is Friday, December 1, 2023).
- The nomination must relate to the current year’s work in 3GPP Working Group.
- The Form “The 3GPP Excellence Award Nomination” must be completed and submitted to the 3GPP Marketing and Communications Officer – who is responsible for the Award process.
- The Awards panel will consider every nomination, at the December TSG SA Plenary meeting and will inform the appropriate Working Group Chair of their decision (or instruct the Marcom Officer to do so).
- The decision of the Award Panel is final.
- The Panel may only award a maximum of FOUR “3GPP Excellence Awards” per Calendar year.
- If the nomination is not accepted, the individual may be nominated again in the future – taking into consideration 3. above.
- Once the positive decision is made, the TSG Chairs will instruct the Marketing and Communications Officer to issue an award pack to the Secretary/Technical Officer. The pack is then given to the Working Group Chair to allow the Award to be distributed at the next Working Group meeting.
[end of awards process]