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Meet the Winners of Design For A Cause 2021

 

I am happy to announce today's Winners of the Design For A Cause 2021 Design Challenge!

 

After 20+ weeks of designing, researching, prototyping, coding, and testing, with 188 Blog posts and 83 Videos created, the Design For A Cause 2021 Design Challenge has come to a close. Our challengers were tasked to use the Arduino Nano 33 IoT create something for the good of humanity and a cause close to their hearts.

 

The judges have rounded up their thoughts on the projects, and selected their favorites!

 

Kit used

 

The Kit

The Specs

Arduino Nano 33 IoT

 

The board's main processor is a low power ArmRegistered CortexRegistered-M0 32-bit SAMD21.

The WiFi and BluetoothRegistered connectivity is performed with a module from u-blox, the NINA-W10, a low power chipset operating in the 2.4GHz range.

On top of those, secure communication is ensured through the MicrochipRegistered ECC608 crypto chip.

Besides that, you can find a 6 axis IMU, what makes this board perfect for simple vibration alarm systems, pedometers, relative positioning of robots, etc

 

IoT support for:

  • Arduino's own IoT Cloud: Arduino's IoT Cloud is a simple and fast way to ensure secure communication for all of your connected Things. Check it out here
  • Blynk: a simple project from our community connecting to Blynk to operate your board from a phone with little code
  • IFTTT: see an in-depth case of building a smart plug connected to IFTTT
  • AWS IoT Core: we made this example on how to connect to Amazon Web Services
  • Azure: visit this github repository explaining how to connect a temperature sensor to Azure's Cloud
  • Firebase: you want to connect to Google's Firebase, this Arduino library will show you how

 

 

The Prizes

 

Prize

Prize Category

Grand Prize

  • Creality CR10-S 3D Printer
  • iPad Air 64GB Wifi
  • $500 Donated To A Charity of your Choice
Runner Up
  • iPad Air 64GB Wifi
  • $250 Donated To A Charity of your Choice

Finisher Prize

 

 

Pocket Digital Multimeter, Resistance Measure, 4000 Count, Average, Auto Range, 3.75 Digit

*Or local equivalent

 

 

 

Winners of the Design For A Cause 2021 Pi Design Challenge

Grand Prize

VenTTracker

 

Read Blogs

 

javagoza designed an IoT Device which monitors gas density and controls windows in a given area to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We loved the practical engineering, software, IoT dashboard and expandability of this project.

 



Runner Up

  - Vital Care

 

Read Blogs

 

The project goal was to design a continuous vital monitoring device which can ease the post recovery after care process for CoVid - 19. This device will send health parameters into the Cloud for telemedicine.

 

 

Finishers


We loved the listed below finishers' works so much they come highly recognized for their amazing efforts.

Other finishers will be contacted directly to receive their prizes.

 

Here are a selection of our favorite finishers.


Open Source EMDR Machine
Victoria's project is to make a fully functional EMDR machine. EMDR is used by psychotherapists in the office setting to reduce patients’ stress and anxiety. It works very well for patients diagnosed with depression, panic attacks, PTSD, addictions, eating disorders. Now due to Covid-19 almost everyone even without diagnosis is stressed and anxious. However this machine costs over $500. My goal is to make a fully functional EMDR machine with some enhancements that will make it even more effective. I plan to make it as cost-efficient as possible, with the instructions and code published on the web. This way therapists from poverty-stricken countries, like Belarus, Ghana etc., can afford it and help people.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

EnergySaverHighScore - Using MQTT, and a Raspberry Pi to Gamify green energy usage

 

Read Blogs

 

 

Garden Controller - a simple Bluetooth Garden water controller

Tony used the MIT App and Build to build his Bluetooth Android app. The app can monitor soil moisture, temperature, pumps, and water level remotely.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

 

Trakcore - Posture correction device

I think technology and community can help improve your posture. Here is how my solution can apply to orthopedic recommendations for better posture:

  • Be conscious of your posture
    • The Arduino Nano 33 IoT (MCU) has capability to collect position information from 6 axis IMU sensor, analyze it using a neural model, recognize activity and communicate results using BLE to a smartphone app to provide a real-time feedback to a person.
  • Get up and move often
    • MCU will detect lack of movements for an extended period of time and send a notification to the app
  • Get breaks to stretch
    • App will recommend stretching and MCU will measure compliance to the recommendation and publish it to the app

 

Read Blogs

 

BIBoP - Brother Industry Band of Power  - Telemedical device

BIBoP is a smart armband designed for remote patient monitoring and overall health assessment. It is based on the Arduino Nano 33 IoT with some external sensors. It uses AWS Lambda and MQTT for communication.  Jakub is also making this project Opensource and you can check out the project's GitHub resources.

 

Read Blogs

 

Robotic Hand

Dale created a telecocation robotic hand using the Adruino Nano IoT 33 and a set of EMG sensors.  They monitored the signals from Dale's hand and flex the same electronic muscles in the robotic hand. This project also included 3D printed fingers and palm.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

Smart Agro Probe
Vishwas created a solar powered remote sensor that used a microphone and temperature sensor to obtain and train a machine learning model.  It runs on the Arduino Nano 33 Sense to detect cricket infestations and elephants.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

Remote Agriculture Solution

An agricultural robot with custom Bluetooth App for safe pesticide dispersion.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

 

Beats Per Minute Nano

Stephen created a IoT heartrate monitor using his work from the Azure Sphere Challenge and access the information using Blynk and AWS IoT Core.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

 

smartChair - Stand up and Walking Aid. IoT Mobility aid

Hitesh's aim was to design and build a lightweight and easy-to-use device; it is a smartChair that would support the "sit-up" position by providing power assistance from an IoT App.

 

Read Blogs

 

 

Smart Exhibit

Alexandru created a smart IoT device to help staff in galleries monitor works of art in exhibits as well as the general public.

 

Read Blogs

 

Anonymous

  • Wonderful projects , nice job

  • Note to Finishers and Winners

    We are beginning the work of shipping prizes, if your address has changed since applying please contact us asap.

    My College might be in touch to help if needed.

    thank you all.

     

  • in reply to skruglewicz

    Thanks for your kind words, .

     

    Venttracker was an idea that my young son had because there was a teacher who only ventilated his classroom when it was his turn to report the CO2 meter record. Gradually my three children approached the project, and it has been a joint effort of the whole family. As they are of different ages from primary education to university, we decided that the project could complete the STEM subjects at different educational levels.

     

    The good thing about these challenges is that people who do not have a background in electronics and without being engineers like me can play at being engineers and let imagination do the rest.

     

    Now we are continuing the project using image processing to monitor the windows. It is a project still in development but with which we are also learning a lot. Window Opening Monitor with ArUco - Tracking window movements. We were unfamiliar with the Raspberry Pi and we are impressed with the power of those boards.

     

    I especially enjoyed the progress and development of: Open Source EMDR Machine, EnergySaverHighScore - Using MQTT, and a Raspberry Pi to Gamify green energy usage, Robotic Hand, Trakcore - Posture correction device,

    Smart Exhibit and Garden Controller - a simple Bluetooth Garden water controller,

     

    I love the rest of the finisher projects. Telemedicine projects are great, but I'm not up to the task of trying something similar or evaluating them, so my highest respect to all of them. I have learned a lot with all of them and I am really grateful for all the detail that they have put into clarifying how their solution worked for neophytes like me.

     

    I would have liked to see the STEPS project completed which was my favorite from the beginning.

     

    Thank you all,

    Enrique ()

  • in reply to skruglewicz

    Thank you for your nice words. It's great to know that you found my blogs helpful and this inspires me to work with more detail in future. Thanks a lot.
    I found your blogs interesting too, specially blog#2 which highlights your research and experiments will be helpful for others. The reference section at the end will be helpful for me as I would like to explore PlatformIO too.

  • Hello all fellow challengers and judges.....

     

    Another fantastic Design Challenge comes to an end. What a great Challenge event...

     

    • Thank you...  element14.com and for this FREE piece of tech, and the opportunity to participate in this challenge and being noted as a "Finisher".
    • Thank you...  Judges for your laborious task of going through all those blog post and coming up with the 2 top winners.  There were a lot of talented engineers that wiltled down from 50 applicants to the 16 that completed the challenge.  GREAT JOB JUDGES !!
    • Congratulations...  to the "Grand Prize Winner"  for your very interesting entry Ventracker, you deserve it... WELL DONE
    • Congratulations...    ,for being selected as a "Runner Up" for your design and implementation of a vital signs monitoring device. GREAT JOB.
    • Congratulations..  to all the 13 "Finishers". What can I say, you all did an amazing Design and Implementation project and finished it. Your designs are all very intersecting solutions for IoT implementation on any MCU. You are all talented engineers and I am fortunate to be able to share your knowledge. I look forward to collaborating with you in the future here on element14.com. THANK YOU ALL

     

    I myself gained a tremendous amount of knowledge in the capabilities of the Arduino form-factor & the Embedded Programming IDE,  by participating in this challenge.

     

    My entry Beats Per Minute Nano is my introduction to the Arduino series of Evaluation Kits. My simple Design and Implementation of an IoT Heart Rate Monitor is a Design that I've been working on for sometime on 2 other MCU Design Kits. I am constantly trying to Improve my design and implementation as I try different Kits. I first implemented it on the Raspberry PI 3 using the heart heart rate sensor vendors implementation example, then I designed and implemented it on the Azure Sphere.

     

    The Arduino NANO 33 IoT now becomes the 5th evaluation kit to become a member of my IoT toolbox, along with the DragonBoard, Azure Sphere. Raspberry PI 3,4,and W0, NXP LPC & i.MXRT series.

    Challenge Collaboration, what a great way to learn.

     

    Thank you, to the element14 community for your continued support and knowledge.

     

    Looking forward to the next Design Challenge Low Power IoT Design Challenge , hope to be selected and see you there.

     

    Thanks for Listening.....

    Steve K aka

  • in reply to jduchniewicz

    Hello

    Nice job on your blogs for the challenge.

    There were a lot of talented engineers that wiltled down from 50 applicants to the 16  that completed the challenge.   I read your blog post  (along with following other challengers), as they were being published. Particularly, blog #3 on blood pressure since it is one of my interest in my IoT experimentation. I will be using your findings for my future experiments.

    Nice work

    Steve K

  • in reply to sunnyiut

    Hello ,

    It was wonderful to read your story. This past 15 months has been long road for you and your family, Congratulations to you on being selected the runner up for this Design Challenge. I was following your blog post throughout the Challenge period, as I try to do with all post in a Design Challenge that I am participating in.  Your attention to detail and research on the topic is very professional. Your Blogs are now listed on my Health IoT research bookmarks. Great Work...

     

    Steve K

  • in reply to jduchniewicz

    Hi, your galvanometer module can be an excellent candidate for the project14 | DIY Test Instrumentation competition.

  • Congratulations! A lot to learn from these blog posts!
    Interestingly 's project was a similar band to mine (but two instead of one and they are worn on the chest and wrist!). I will dig deep into your blog posts to enrich my knowledge on the subject
    I wish I had the time to debug BIBoP on time and show something more sophisticated but random bugs in MQTT library and general memory corruption which was undebuggable without an external debugger stalled me for a loooong time. I have bought a JLink and will continue to debug my code and hopefully I will show the BIBoP achieving its full potential.
    I also made a galvanometer module (THT soldering because I cannot design a PCB yet ) so I will also showcase it here if anyone is interested (had an opportunity to learn about OpAmps thanks to this design, so I may write up on them here as well).
    Once again thanks for the amazing competition and see you around!

  • in reply to sunnyiut

    , your project is amazing. I have a pending task to read it more carefully and understand it well, but I have no idea about electromedicine and it is difficult for me.

    Congratulations on your award. I am glad that you are well and everything has passed.