Project14 | Quick Update on Upcoming Competitions + What Would You Like To See Happen In Project14?

The initial goal of project14 was to encourage new members to begin participation.

Over the years we have seen some excellent projects and added a lot of members to element14.

Hopefully we will continue to do a range of projects that encourage new members to get involved and show us what they can do.

Totally agree, I definitely want to find project themes, prompts etc that appeal to new members and all experience levels.

If you stick to more general themes rather than specific technologies, then you should already be halfway there as each participant can then interpret the theme in their own way and then decide on what level of complexity to aim for and be able to use what materials and knowledge they have available. This should appeal to new members at all experience levels.

Some may be put off by the competition who often aim higher but the Jumbo LED project shows that even a simple idea presented well can still win.

Taking a slightly different approach, then I can see some potential in trying to link some of the Learning Circuit/DC to Daylight type educational content to projects. Take what you have just learnt, turn it into a project and then post a blog about it (similar to a Project14 entry). This can work both ways as the existing learning content could also benefit by being supplemented by links to example projects relating to the subject material having just been covered. (There is also further potential for linking with STEM areas to create more structured didactic material and to the shop for supply of components used.) This could appeal to those at more entry levels without excluding more experienced members from participation.

If you stick to more general themes rather than specific technologies, then you should already be halfway there as each participant can then interpret the theme in their own way and then decide on what level of complexity to aim for and be able to use what materials and knowledge they have available. This should appeal to new members at all experience levels.

Some may be put off by the competition who often aim higher but the Jumbo LED project shows that even a simple idea presented well can still win.

Taking a slightly different approach, then I can see some potential in trying to link some of the Learning Circuit/DC to Daylight type educational content to projects. Take what you have just learnt, turn it into a project and then post a blog about it (similar to a Project14 entry). This can work both ways as the existing learning content could also benefit by being supplemented by links to example projects relating to the subject material having just been covered. (There is also further potential for linking with STEM areas to create more structured didactic material and to the shop for supply of components used.) This could appeal to those at more entry levels without excluding more experienced members from participation.

I could see a whole new forum category for educational themes. Members would be challenged to create an educational blog. Like how to solder, or how to use KiCad, or how does a PLL work, or what is a diac, etc.

I'm not sure what would be a suitable motivator for such blogs, but any blog that exceeds some threshold of quality or popularity should be rewarded.

Karen and Derek have been doing educational blogs over on element14 Presents for quite some time as part of the VCP programme. Amongst others, there was also the likes of the Fundamentals of Soldering series and Shabaz did a nice KiCad 6 Unofficial Quick Start blog a while back. (Trouble with software blogs though is that the need frequent updating to keep current with version changes). So, some groundwork already done.

It would be interesting to see more of that material being linked to member projects. See what people can come up with.