Community members found creative solutions to staying safe during the pandemic
element14.com, an Avnet community, has announced the winning designs of its “Fighting Germs” Design Challenge, where participants helped to fight COVID-19 by creating projects that protect vulnerable populations and help people cope with the crisis.
The Grand Prize winner, Shabaz Yousaf from the UK, created contact-less virtual buttons that are motion-sensor based, allowing the user to make selections without direct physical contact. The three first place winners, based in the India, Canada and United States, all created germ-fighting projects designed for safety as communities reopen. First place projects include a face mask detector system that uses cameras to determine if someone is properly wearing a face covering, a 3D printed face shield designed to clip onto the brim of a baseball cap, and a contact-free temperature checker that provides a pass, fail or borderline result to signify whether or not someone is healthy enough to be in public spaces.
“Now more than ever, we’re all working to find innovative solutions that can help us keep our friends, families and coworkers safe,” said Dianne Kibbey, Global Head of Community and Social Media for the element14 Community. “Our community of makers and engineers are especially well equipped to find innovative solutions to the challenges this pandemic presents. We hope these projects will inspire others and help to slow and prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
The grand prize winner of this design challenge received an IR Camera, $200 shopping cart to Newark.com and a $200 donation to a charity of choice. The three first place winners each received a germicidal lamp, a $100 shopping cart to Newark.com and a $100 donation to a charity of choice.
element14 Community is part of element14, the Development Distributor, which helps design engineers, maintenance and test engineers, makers, parents, and teachers develop the future generation of coders and products that apply technology to change our world for the better.
To learn more about element14 Design Challenges and see the full list of winners, visit the element14 website.
