Innovative designs and ideas aren’t meant to remain in silos and should be showcased and portrait in the right arenas to be appreciated and put to use. PCBWay is back with their 5th edition of PCB Design Contest open to all. With an aim to harness your design into reality this competition is a true learning experience with world-wide participation, expert judging panel and lots of exciting prizes. There are also a lot of valuable information that you can use in any contest that you take part, So make sure to go through the complete article.
Why Should You Participate?
Always put your practice to test, participating in competitions and letting experts judge your design is the best way to get evaluated and enhanced. Therefore, it’s always advisable to look for on-going contests at various levels and participate in them. This will not only boost your confidence but such contests can prove to be your much needed breakthrough.
Further, you get to engage with other participants coming from varied backgrounds and with innovative ideas. It’s a good opportunity to know what all is possible and how creative designs can be. This also gives a perspective about your understanding and where you stand at the knowledge level.
Contest’s Overview:
The competition is currently on-going. The project release time is between 1st September, 2022 to 31st December, 2022. Therefore, you still have nearly two months to submit your projects.
The project review time has been allotted to 1st January, 2023 to 31st January, 2023. Following which the results will be announced on 6th February, 2023.
Theme of the Contest:
PCBWay starts with a grilling question at the onset of the contest details itself, that is:
“What can we do today when technology is advancing rapidly and climate change is intensifying?”
Thus, they have pinpointed the two main themes of this design contest: Technology advanced designs and climate sustainability catering designs.
Both the themes are the twin pillar on which our future rests. Technology is meant to enhance over time, from automotive to IoT, from entertainment to education, technology enhancement is happening everywhere.
However, at the same time we need to try to steer technology in the field of climate change also. We are standing at the threshold of a climate catastrophe. It is no secret anymore. Thus, how can young minds find solutions through their innovative designs to address this challenge?
Solar panels, EVs, 3D printing are all eco-friendly technologies which were all once a design waiting to become a reality. What more is in store? You might answer that.
So the sub-division of themes provided by PCBWay under which you can directly submit your design are:
- Next-Generation Technology: Home automation, IoT, wearable projects, embedded electronics or others come within it.
- Earth-Friendly Project: This focuses on climate sustainability designs.
- Free Theme: PCBWay is giving you the option to come up with your own project that might not be a part of the other two themes.
Adherence to Rule Guidelines:
A list of six major rules that needs to be followed by the participants before submission of their designs has been clearly mentioned by the PCBWay on their portal:
Eyes on the Prize:
There are prizes for everybody who participates:
- First Prize- There will be only one winner who will ace the contest and bag $1500 cash plus $200 worth coupon along with one Raspberry Pi 4 Model B-4GB.
- Second Prize- The next two winners will bag $1000 cash plus $100 worth coupon along with one Raspberry Pi 4 Model B-4GB each.
- Third Prize- The next three winners will bag $500 cash plus $50 worth coupon along with one Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3.
- Popular Design Prize- The ten winners with popular designs will get $100 cash plus $20 worth coupon and $10 3D Printing Coupon along with one Digital High-Precision Automatic Multimeter.
- Participation Prize- Every participant will get one Raspberry Pi Pico each.
Judgement:
Who will Judge your Design?
A panel of six judges has been set. They are veterans in the field coming from varied area of experiences:
- Mitch Altman who is a hacker, inventor, speaker, teacher, author and a founder;
- Wayne Stambaugh is a Senior Engineer at KiCad Project Leader;
- Roger Thornton is the Director of Applications at Raspberry Pi;
- Bil Herd is a former Commodore Engineer (C128, Plus4), inventor and an entrepreneur;
- Shrouk El-Attar MEng is among IET Top 6 Young Women Engineers and BBC 100 Most Influential Women.
- Anson Bao is an NDT Engineer at PCBWay and a Marketing Manager.
What are the Judging Criteria?
The four board evaluation criteria enlisted by the PCBWay are:
- Completeness of the project information, including all the documents, videos, programs, debugging, etc.
- The realization of the project includes the method used, circuit/software structure, program application model, etc.
- Technological innovation of the project, i.e. the challenges faced and the solutions provided to overcome them.
- The social value, every design should have some contribution to the society at large, trying to bridge an existing gap in society.
How to Apply?
Once gone through all the briefing and rules to be followed, and if you think your PCB design is a right fit, you can directly apply by clicking here, PCBWay 5th PCB Design Contest.
Go Get Started:
If you are still hesitant it’s totally fine. Taking the first step is always hard; knowing your design will be critically evaluated and your hardest work will be precisely judged can be daunting. But always remember, these contests are the best way to get evaluated and keep correcting on your design.
And if you are among those who haven’t designed (learn to design) yet then do it now because every great innovation comes from a small creative idea that is bursting in your head. So just go and get started with your PCB design and participate in the 5th edition of PCBWay Design Contest.
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