element14 Community announces winners of the Summer of Green Technology design challenges

Chicago – November 30, 2023: element14, an Avnet community, recently announced the winners from the series of Summer of Green Technology design challenges, which launched alongside multiple educational webinars. Participants had the opportunity to advance their skillsets and experiment with top products all while creating projects that benefit the planet.

“We are always excited to highlight the boundary-pushing projects our Community members generate,” said Andreea Teodorescu, Global Director of Product Marketing & element14 Community. “We were blown away by the results from the Summer of Green design challenges and urge our members to continue to keep their green mindsets while tackling future projects.”

Of the many talented participants across three design challenges, below are the grand prize winners selected by the element14 Community team of judges:

Summer of Green Technology Design Challenge: In this challenge, participants were encouraged to design a project to help preserve the planet for future generations by using the Seeeduino XIAO R102010328 Arduino Microcontroller Board. Alistair MacDonald, from the UK, created a smart heat reduction system using vent bricks built into walls. The project combined the use of the DHT20 in MicroPython on the Seeeduino XIAO to monitor temperature, and a fan to push air in or out of a building. This project featured insightful blogs, 3D printing, laser cutting and a detailed demonstration.
Experimenting with Supercapacitors Sponsored by Cornell Dubilier Electronics: In a challenge where Community members got the chance to experiment with Cornell Dubilier’s supercapacitors, grand prize winner Gough Lui published an insightful blog series called “What’s Super about Supercapacitors?” which chronicled their experimentation with supercapacitors and discussed their many uses.

Project14 Off the Grid Competition: In this design challenge, the two grand prize winners generated projects that could help a person “get off the grid”. Gary Yohe built a tropical beverage cooling mug powered by solar energy while the second grand prize winner, Michael Zurek, created a compact solar-powered temperature sensor.

Winners were judged on a variety of components, including their creativity in experimenting with the provided kits and their blog posts. Grand prizes included a lightweight aluminum folding bike, an indoor hydroponic IoT herb garden, select product kits and more.

The element14 Community supports its community being green year-round with several educational resources, including the Energy Harvesting eBook, which discusses environmentally friendly energy harvesting options, along with Summer of Green Webinars, which are always available to the community to re-visit on-demand.