Smart Security and Surveillance – Design Challenge

thanks JoRatcliffe  this clears a bunch of my questions - much appreciated.

Having just read the T's&C's I also note that judging will include

1.4. Judging Criteria: All of the following, which will have equal weighting:
1.4.1. Challengers
         must post five (5) forum posts regarding their build process plus
         one (1) project blog sharing the final outcome of their project using the Kit. Challengers ...
1.4.2. Originality;
1.4.3. Innovation;
1.4.4. Technical merit;
1.4.5. Meeting the goals and intentions of the Contest as set forth in these Terms;
1.4.6. Completeness and clarity of posts and supporting media describing the evolution ...

️️ so the 5 forum posts and 1 project post are also important ️️

Hopefully I plan to work on this with friendlyantz - he will help drive this forward and has a 3D printer

For those interested, we were looking at things like fingerprinting Drone transmitting frequencies using the MAX32630FTHR but obviously we would need a bunch of RF sensors that are not part of the kit - but the T's&C's are ok with that (yes all done within legal bounds)

Also for the other boards (Seeed XIAO Sense) and more powerful computers (Hailo, Jetson, Ras Pi) this was around an idea of having a mesh of sensors and a central AI with LLM capability to process the input and if I needed more than one MAX32630FTHR I may want to aim for a platform I already have at hand (at the reduced chance of winning)

all good thanks for all the responses

Hey saramic , kmikemoo and arvindsa have both given you great responses but just so you hear from one of the competition organizers:

#1 If your submission is not selected as a sponsored challenger then you can always enter a project as an unsponsored challenger by purchasing the kit and adhering to the same rules. Unsponsored challengers can still win and this has happened in previous competitions.

#2 Yes everyone can take part, either as a sponsored or unsponsored challenger, and everyone can begin planning or start making preparations ahead of the build period and submission deadline on 24th May.

#3 It is not mandatory use the MAX32630FTHR#. However, part of the aim of the challenge is to 'showcase features of the kit in the most imaginative way possible' so if you are not using the full kit or not using it to the fullest of its capabilities then that might make it harder to qualify for a prize. At the same time though, the team and I are understanding that for unsponsored challengers there is a cost to purchasing the entire kit. This is a very supportive community so I know everyone would be really enthusiastic to see what someone created around the theme of the challenge regardless how many official kit parts they did/did not use. 

#4 Yes you can absolutely add sensors, an enclosure, additional devices, whatever you want to do to bring your project to life. The kit is intended to help Challengers get started and provide something to build on.

#5 Yes you could use an alternative board and then use the rest of the official kit. This would mean that to an extent you are not showcasing all the features of the kit but perhaps your project is overall highly original, innovative, and demonstrates lots of technical merit, and as a result is still highly deserving of a prize. So there is a calculation there that you need to make...

Lastly, yes you can enroll as a team. Just let me know in your application who is in the team. Plus, when project updates are being shared maybe just let everyone know who is in the team. I would also just highlight that the number of prizes is the same for every winner, so if a team won a prize then they would need to share  

If you have any more questions, you are very welcome to reply here or you can DM me if you like.

Mr Arvind Sharma

Element 14 community

Date: 9 march 2026

Subject: Explanation of what I sent

Dear Arvind

I am glad to write this letter , I recently recived a letter that you didn't get what I mentioned to say, what I provided is the official datasheet for the microcontroller that you may get

So my main texts are that this is the blueprint you can use to be more creative.

Thanks

Your friend 

Aniket Kumar Raj

Didnt get you.

HO HO HO , santa brought something in march

saramic The Design Challenge FAQs might help.   Competition FAQs and Judging 

 arvindsa's summary is also very good.

I will answer to some extent.  Note i am not part of an organizing team. I am a fellow participant and its my understanding:
1. If you enroll now and if you are not selected among the 10 people for whom the kit will be sponsored, you still can submit the final project but only as long as you build a project with the same components as that of the kit. The more the better.
2. You can start working/building for the project now itself either plan or work with the hardware if you have them. (I may have misunderstood your question)
3. The rules  says you need to use the kit, doesnt say how much, so the more of the kit you use in a creative and coherent way to the utility of the project (i mean you are not using the components just for the competition's sake), the greater is chance. So reasonably we can assume, if you don't use the MAX32630FTHR which is sort of the main thing here, your chance can go down, although i don't think you will be disqualified if you use other components of kit
4. Yes, if the project genuinely requires it. 
5. Chance goes down. Again i do not see anything in the the rules that says you cannot use replacement enough to be a disqualified.

In short:  the spirit of the challenge is to for the challengers to use this MAX32630FTHR board and establish creativity in using its features. Stress is on the work Challenge. The more of kit you use, the greater is your change of winning.

I'm a little confused at how this work? I submitted a proposal, it seems now the dates have shifted so technically I have till 15 March to alter or submit other proposals - I kind of get that

After my submission, there is a chance to be one of ten sponsored challengers and get some gear to help build a prototype - I kind of get that

but what happens to the rest of us?

1. can my submission be rejected, and that is it?
2. is they idea "ALL" other submissions will now have the opportunity to "build" their prototype to enter the actual challenge by 24 May?
3. how mandatory is it to use the MAX32630FTHR# ? is it a show stopper if one is not used? ie. if I don't get selected as a sponsored challenger, I need to buy one?
4. presumably if I do use the MAX32630FTHR# (unless it is optional) the I can choose to use any "other" sensors, devices, actuators and even another, potentially more powerful platform to offload more complex calculations like
   1. Jeston Nano - https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-nano
   2. Google Coral - https://www.coral.ai/docs/dev-board/get-started/
   3. Hailo 8 M.2 AI - https://hailo.ai/products/ai-accelerators/hailo-8-m2-ai-acceleration-module/
   4. ArmSoM-LM7 Maker Kit - https://www.armsom.org/lm7
   5. Brainy PI - https://brainypi.com/
   6. Orange Pi - http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/details/Orange-Pi-5.html
   7. Intel Neural Compute stick (discontinued so there may be some discounts) https://cdrdv2-public.intel.com/749742/neural-compute-stick2-product-brief.pdf
5. or presumably I could use an alternative edge board? maybe be somewhat penalised?
   1. Arduino Nano 33 BLE sense - https://store.arduino.cc/products/nano-33-ble-sense-rev2-with-headers
   2. Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 Sense (XIAO BLE Sense) https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeed-XIAO-BLE-Sense-nRF52840-p-5253.htm
   3. Seeed Arch Max - https://www.seeedstudio.com/Arch-Mix-p-2901.html
   4. Seeed Wio Lite MG126 - https://www.seeedstudio.com/Wio-Lite-MG126-p-4189.html

I have put in the names and links in case anyone has some feedback on things I have missed or better or worse alternatives

Finally if I want to enrol as a team, is there something I need to do to get my team mates to join my submission?

thanks in advance! - looking forward to it

Ive been waiting for someone to send me a ring camera so I can collect the Luis Rossman bounty on secure security camera conversion. 

I must admit I felt a little disappointed at first since I was looking forward to the original timeline, but it’s completely understandable. A few extra days won’t hurt, and it’s good that everyone gets additional time to refine their submissions.