About the Honorable Mentions

As in all of our Design Challenges, element14 enlists the help of a panel of judges to select the three top designs of the Challenge .

After the winners are announced (read about the winners here Upcycle It Winners Announcement), the Design Challenge team gets together for a post-Challenge meeting where we reflect on the Challenge. The one thing that stuck out during this meeting was our unanimous feeling that there were a lot of good ideas and designs that deserved recognition. So, we decided to create an Honorable Mention Award.

After much discussion, debate, and give-and-take, we settled on three Challengers worthy of mentioning. (You may want to nominate other Challengers for an Honorable Mention. Feel free to do so in the comments section below.) The three winners of Honorable Mentions will also be awarded a Honorable Mention Medal.

Without further ado, here are the winners of the Honorable Mention winners for the element14 Upcycle It Design Challenge:

1) Honorable Mention

Andy Clark Workshopshed
Terrifying Upcycled Furby and RC Car,

https://www.element14.com/community/tags#/?tags=upcycled_interactiveracecardriver

Something must be said for a guy who got inspiration for his project by rummaging through his scrap drawer to make something interesting like an interactive toy car and driver. Rummaging through a scrap drawer is where most of us at one time began our love of making, tinkering and building. Building some complex designs around these scrap pieces really stood out for us in terms of creativity, innovation and fun.

Judges said:

"Using a web interface to create an amazing talking Furby go kart with working indicators and sound. We loved his use of multiple upcycled items and the interface."

2) Honorable Mention

Nando Hila nandohila
Washing Machine Hydroponic Grower

https://www.element14.com/community/community/design-challenges/upcycleit/blog/tags#/?tags=washing_machine

We were impressed with not only the hydroponic 'Good Earth' theme of this challenger's project, but really enjoyed all the shots of his drilling, grinding and sawing away at an old washing machine. It was quite a production, requiring a lot of different skills to make it work.

Judges said:
"Using a washing machine to create an automated hydroponics system, very ambitious big engineering and electronics project!"

3) Honorable Mention

Sergey Vlasov vlasov01

WiFi Connected Smoke Detector

[Upcycle It] WiFi Connected Smoke Detector - Project Index

Taking a simple smoke detector anyone can buy in a local hardware store and envisioning a complex redesign, and executing it to as close to perfection as possible made us shout out some happy applause for this cool project. It's a great textbook example of the nuts and bolts of transforming traditional home devices into connected devices. Not as easy as some people think.

Judges Said:
"It's a simple idea that illustrates an IoT device, and everything in between. He has a well laid out design that anyone can follow. He communicates the design well."