by Dot Cannon
What would you make, if you had just over twenty-four hours to design a solution to a problem?
On Thursday, June 23rd, some talented makers–teams and individuals–came up with six intriguing answers.
They were all part of the 2016 Sensors Expo’s “Sensors Design Challenge”, in San Jose! Graduate students and entrepreneurial developers attending the conference were eligible to participate. Their challenge: to come up with an Internet of Things design solution , combining skills in both hardware and software development.
Everyone had started working at 9 am on Wednesday. Now, just after 2:00 on Thursday, the time had come to present their work at the Embedded Live Theatre.
Each team would have three minutes for their presentation, followed by a one-minute question-and-answer session.
The first innovation was BuildSec, a building-management security system, created by Sonoma State University engineering students Jose Antonio (left) and Omar Alvarez.
“(It) will send a text message (to the custodian) if the boiler room gets too hot,” explained Jose. “If there’s really extreme temperature, it might shut down the room. When we get to one degree Celsius, it will call maintenance.”
Jose also said BuildSec was designed to deal with natural disasters. “It can sense an earthquake, and shut off electricity.”
Next up was the CareTech team: Hanan Sedaghatpisheh, Aaron Marquez, and Feng Wang, also engineering students at SSU.
They had designed–a “smart” diaper that alerts parents when it’s time for a change!
“It has a humidity sensor,” explained Feng. “When I blow on it, it’ll turn red, and it also sends you a text message, telling you (it’s time).” The sensor, he said, was designed for multiple uses–it’s waterproof!
After that, Kurt Larson presented “Daddy’s Special Medicine”, an Internet-connected scale to help insure that the user never runs out of wine!
“On the map on the right-hand corner, it’s (indicating) where we are right now,”he explained. “That’s how I’m going to (know) whether I have wine, and if I have to go to the store.”
Next came TPMS, a sensor to measure tire pressure…
..”Sleep Tight”, a sleep tracker that determines how well the user has slept, and makes recommendations based on humidity and temperature…
Makers Himanshu Joshi and Sangram Kardekar told the audience they’d created versions to monitor both an infant’s sleep, and an adult’s.
…and “Spare the Air”, a sensing system for days when the Bay Area air quality is such that users need to forego using their fireplaces or barbecues.
Creator Rahul Dubey explained that the information is transmitted through street lights!
After this final presentation, Challenge chair and Dew Mobility CTO Shiva Mathapathi announced that the judges would be taking a ten-minute break.
Not surprisingly, when they returned, a number of awards were forthcoming.
Both TPMS and BuildSec won American Express gift cards for their inventions.
The second runner-up was “Daddy’s Special Medicine”.
First runner-up award went to the “Sleep Tight” team.
And the grand-prize winner was Care Tech, for the “smart” diaper.
Congratulations to all the winners–and in our book, that’s everyone who spent their time and talent designing a competition entry!
Meanwhile, dates have been announced for next year’s Sensors Expo in San Jose: June 27-29, 2017. If you’re a maker with an incredible idea, you might like to start sketching. They’ll be providing more information on their next “Design Challenge”, and how to enter. as June 2017 gets closer.