Collaborative electronics community also announced Hackerspace Charlotte as the grand prize winner in “The Great Global Hackerspace Challenge”
CHICAGO – May 26, 2011 – element14, the first collaborative engineering community and electronics store for design engineers and enthusiasts, received an Editor’s Choice award at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, which took place May 21-22 at the San Mateo County Event Center in California. With its soldering station, appearances by artist Ben Innes and Benjamin J. Heckendorn, aka Ben Heck, and popular hands-on LED building station, the element14 booth was a busy, informative and fun attraction at the festival, which drew more than 100,000 attendees throughout the weekend.
“It is an honor to receive an editor’s choice award and be recognized by the maker community,” said Kevin Yapp, chief marketing officer, element14. “element14 is proud to be part of such an innovative group of organizations dedicated to bringing awareness to the Maker Movement and this award further demonstrates our commitment to not only design engineers but electronics enthusiasts and DIYers.”
In addition, as part of its Maker Faire activities element14 announced Hackerspace Charlotte as the winner of “The Great Global Hackerspace Challenge,” a two-month competition focused on advancing technology in education. On Sunday, May 22, representatives from the three semi-finalist teams presented their projects to judges Heck, Jeri Ellsworth, Mitch Altman, and Gareth Branwyn, editor-in-chief of Makezine.com, among others, on the Innovation Stage. After a brief collaboration, Altman announced Hackerspace Charlotte’s Feltronics project as the winner. Feltronics allows educators to teach electronics theory and design to any age with hands-on experimentation rewarded with instant feedback from a completed circuit.
“We are thrilled to have won The Great Global Hackerspace Challenge,” said Quincy Acklen, a representative from Hackerspace Charlotte. “For two months, our team worked tirelessly to create a project that could be used in a classroom setting and we truly believe Feltronics is a fun and engaging way to teach electronics. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the challenge, and overwhelmed by receiving this award from such an esteemed panel of judges.”
Every participating hackerspace team received soldering stations from OKI and Weller, a one-year, full professional EAGLE license from CadSoft, TechSpray ESD safe lead cutters and desoldering braids, as well as other prizes courtesy of Agilent, ATG and Fluke. As the grand prize winner, team Hackerspace Charlotte received an oscilloscope from Tektronix worth $5,600.
