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Priority Interrupt
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Priority
Interrupt
by Steve Ciarcia
Contest
Zest
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Contest
closing is a hectic time around Circuit Cellar. Not so much
because it’s crazier than any other time, but because contests
have become my personal fiefdom and a lot happens at the
last minute. My official title may be Editorial Director,
but I have really come to enjoy being the Contest Administrator,
too.
I’ve
said this before, and I’ll say it again: contests are a
big deal at Circuit Cellar because we do them right, and
we do them for mutual benefit. What’s that mean? Well, one
of the reasons you read Circuit Cellar is because we publish
real-world embedded applications. When we run a design contest,
we aren’t doing it as some advertising scheme, we’re doing
it to build a fire under the design community. Entrants
get an opportunity to walk away with some big cash (there’s
$30K in prize money in the Motorola Flash Innovation 2003
Design Contest), and we get to publish and post some really
great projects.
The
best part of personally doing the contest job has been communicating
with entrants and realizing that contest participation is
mutually beneficial. My incentive is that it is a good way
to find authors. Surprisingly, however, by talking to entrants,
I am finding out that having Circuit Cellar publish their
project entries has had major benefits for their careers.
Dozens of past entrants and winners have written to me describing
how much they enjoy the increased respect at work and in
the professional community.
More
than a few have said they can attribute a bonus, job promotion,
or outright career change to a Circuit Cellar contest. The
most recent example of this is Robert Lacoste. If you’ve
been reading Circuit Cellar for a while, you’ll recognize
his name from many past contests. If I remember correctly,
he’s won prizes in seven different contests in the last
four and half years. A couple weeks ago, Robert wrote me
that he was leaving his job as Director of a large company
and starting his own design business (www.alciom.com). His
world-wide design reputation, frequently demonstrated in
the pages of Circuit Cellar, along with a network of semiconductor
manufacturer contacts (all the contest sponsors) has provided
the perfect incentive to capitalize on everything and go
it alone. Given his past performance, I know Robert will
do well.
As
I write this, the Motorola contest entries are arriving.
I know there are a number of repeat entrants like Robert
who love the challenge, but it’s amazing what the new guys
think up for projects. It’s a good thing part of the judging
criteria is originality. Here are some of the entries in
the in-basket so far: a neat touch-screen controller for
LCDs; an acoustic wave soil moisture detection system; a
magic-lamp lighting effects controller, a wireless mousetrap-monitoring
system; a microwave radar-guided automobile cruise control
system; a blood pressure monitor; and a number of other
equally interesting designs.
I
especially appreciate entries that teach me something new.
Has anyone besides me never really thought about acoustical
cellular automata parallel processing? Just so you aren’t
scratching your head for the two to three months it takes
to post contest projects, the closest I can describe this
concept is to think of the game of Life that we all played
on early computers. Now, substitute processors with four
eight-tone sound transducers for the individual cells in
a large array. The overall sound effect, whether seemingly
chaotic or orderly, is governed by the rules used to generate
new cell states in the game of Life. I plan to go back and
ask the cellular automata entrant to send me a recording.
This I have to hear.
Fortunately,
the evolution in video technology has helped in understanding
some of the other projects. More than a few entrants have
included video clips this time around. For example, watching
as the Follow-Me Greeter Grandfather Clock turns and follows
the direction of the contestant as he walks through the
living room and greets him both coming and going definitely
explains the concept better than words. Of course, there’s
also the video showing a PC ventilation-failure detector
where the contestant adds a little excitement by using a
blowtorch to simulate an overheated enclosure. Pyrotechnics
aside, the expanding concept of contest entry ingredients
these days undoubtedly helps in understanding the project
and adds zest to dull schematics and software listings.
Of course, our contests have always been about adding a
little zest to the whole notion of embedded design.
steve.ciarcia@circuitcellar.com
Published:
August 2003
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