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Step 19Win Valuable Prizes
Periodically, many of the manufacturers of microcontrollers will sponsor "Design Contests" where engineers all over will be challenged to come up with a particularly clever design using a particular microcontroller. The idea is to entice engineers into looking at THEIR chips even if they're already using some other microcontroller. At any given time of year, there's likely to be at least one contest "in progress." There are a number of good things about these contests:
Usually there is nothing in the rules that prevents the entry from also being (say) your college senior design project. Alas, many contests are restricted to people over 18, and completing an entry in the timeframe usually allowed is not so easy as it sounds before you've tried it.
Currently running:
Freescale Low-end x08 "Black Widow" Contest half-price development kit on completion of 2 parts of the 4-part contest. $10k+ prize.
PICList Free PCB Contest Free olimex-fabbed PCB for your design. Small prize, small contest; runs every month! Must be PIC or SX based.
General reference for a lot of contests (includes past winners, etc.):
Circuit Cellar Magazine Contest Page
I entered Freescale's recent "Black Widow" contest for designs based on their very small 8-bit microcontrollers, which had a top prize of $10000 cash plus a trip to their design conference (and $1000 for each of 10 finalists to aid in completing a prototype.) I didn't make the finals :-(
However, I netted a T-shirt, a coupon good for $15 off a (low cost) development system, and oneof some ROOMBA robot vacuum cleaners raffled off to "early entrants." And I learned some stuff, too. That's not a bad haul. The contest apparently had 775 participants at the final phase...
- PRIZES. Some of the contests have significant cash prizes. $5-10k, which is not to be sneezed at.
- Winning even a minor prize (or being published) will look good on your resume.
- Frequently the contests are accompanied by "special offers" in the form of low cost development tools or free samples.
- Motivation!
- A contest may generate at least temporary interest and discussion on some processor of interest.
- The end of the contest usually includes publishing some or all of the entered designs, serving as useful examples for everyone else.
Usually there is nothing in the rules that prevents the entry from also being (say) your college senior design project. Alas, many contests are restricted to people over 18, and completing an entry in the timeframe usually allowed is not so easy as it sounds before you've tried it.
Currently running:
Freescale Low-end x08 "Black Widow" Contest half-price development kit on completion of 2 parts of the 4-part contest. $10k+ prize.
PICList Free PCB Contest Free olimex-fabbed PCB for your design. Small prize, small contest; runs every month! Must be PIC or SX based.
General reference for a lot of contests (includes past winners, etc.):
Circuit Cellar Magazine Contest Page
I entered Freescale's recent "Black Widow" contest for designs based on their very small 8-bit microcontrollers, which had a top prize of $10000 cash plus a trip to their design conference (and $1000 for each of 10 finalists to aid in completing a prototype.) I didn't make the finals :-(
However, I netted a T-shirt, a coupon good for $15 off a (low cost) development system, and oneof some ROOMBA robot vacuum cleaners raffled off to "early entrants." And I learned some stuff, too. That's not a bad haul. The contest apparently had 775 participants at the final phase...
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