Four ISU computer engineering students could leave Washington, D.C. on Tuesday with a team prize of $20,000 for their senior design project.

Christopher Hagen, Andrew Lundberg, Janice Wong and Chun Yu are competing against nine teams from around the world in the Sixth Annual Computer Society International Design Competition, which started Sunday and runs through Tuesday.

“If we present our project well, I think we have a really good chance at top three,” Lundberg said.

The team has been working since last August on Janix — Janus Adaptable Network of Integrated Cubix— a wireless system used to distribute information to devices, such as laptops, cell phones or PDAs in places like airports, hospitals and shopping malls.

For example, a doctor could check patient information without having to be in the patient’s room or at a computer, Hagen said.

Janix was developed to be both user and administrator friendly, so that unwanted information can be ignored and installation can be done without the aid of a software programmer, Lundberg said.

All group members said they felt lucky to get to work with one another and credited their success so far to teamwork.

“Most times when we got together and somebody had something to get done, they’d have that plus something else done,” Hagen said.

Initially, six ISU teams submitted entry reports for the competition.

After being singled out as the top team, the Janix developers submitted intermediate and final reports before being selected to the world finals.

“When Chris (Hagen) told me we were going, I didn’t believe him,” Lundberg said.

An estimated 2,500 hours were put into the project, which includes a 20-minute presentation, along with a 10-minute question and answer session.

All teams involved in the competition will also have its projects on demonstration for two and a half hours.

Cash prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $2,500 are to be awarded to the second, third and honorable mention places, respectively.

If the ISU students were to receive money, they would divide it evenly among themselves, team members said.

“I would save it or buy a car,” Wong said.

Last year, an ISU team took third place, but this team does not want to base its performance off that team’s performance.

“If we are going to Washington, D.C., we might as well win,” Lundberg said.