We are so excited to partner with littleBits for a unique design challenge: How can you make your home smarter using the Internet of Things and 3D Printing?
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Find something in your house that you consider mundane. A coffee mug, a pair of old gloves a floppy disk. Now ask yourself, how can you make it smarter? With littleBits and 3D printing, of course! Upcycle that object into something smarter and cloud-connected. Start doodling ideas and check the rules below.
HACK-A-THON
What better way to get your creative juices flowing than a hackathon? Join us at littleBits beautiful offices this Saturday for the 3D + IoT: Make Smarter Gadgets Make-a-thon with Shapeways & LittleBits. Hear from inspiring speakers, tinker with materials and meet like-minded folks to get your projects started.
RULES
The contest takes place in 2 phases: Ideas and Finalists.
Ideas Phase: Deadline to submit is March 28th.
Submit concepts for your creation including a rough 3D model and a layout of how you would incorporate littleBits. Upload your projects to the littleBits project page using the hashtag #shapebits.
Make sure in your upload, you include:
– The inspiration and impetus behind your concept
– Reflect on what you did 1st, 2nd and 3rd
– List the resources you consulted to help others in the future
*Remember we are a community who loves sharing work in progress. Don’t be shy to share your piece even if it is not finished yet and ask in the Project Buzz category in the littleBits forum for help.
Finalists Phase: Deadline to submit is April 30th.
After the final deadline, our expert panel of super star judges will be invited to review the entries and select 5 contestants for the “Finalists” phase.
During this phase contestants will receive free bits to create their projects and a coupon from Shapeways to print them out. Final projects will need to be uploaded by April 30th on the Shapeways & littleBits sites both using the hashtag #shapebits.
PRIZES
The maker behind the smartest, most awesome project submitted will get a Workshop Set, which includes 100 Modules ($1,547 value) and $500 in 3D printing credit from Shapeways.
In addition, the top three entries will be showcased in our MakerFaire booth in San Francisco this May and featured in our newsletters and the littleBits Community Hall of Fame.
JUDGES
We have a fantastic lineup of judges who will rank entries across these measurements of awesomeness:
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Creativity — how inspired is your creation, how close to the theme is it.
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Technological achievement – how well does this project incorporate the potential of littleBits + 3D Printing
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Aesthetics- how well designed and polishes is your final object
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Surprise- how original and unexpected is your final project
Here they are:
Heidi Farrell, Design Engineer at Smart Design, NY
Heidi Farrell is an engineer who designs mass-produced, everyday products. She has worked on things like kitchen tools for OXO and camera gear for Joby x Lowepro. Based in Brooklyn, Heidi studied product design at Stanford, has worked in SF and Stockholm, and is currently a design engineer in Smart Design’s New York studio.
Ron Rosenmann, Senior Design Technologist, Frog NY
Ron focuses on interaction prototyping and building UX simulations as part of the design process at Frog. A nice sampling of his awesome work can be found here.
Andrew Mager, Developer Evangelist, Smart Things, SF
A developer evangelist at SmartThings in the Bay Area, helping developers all over the world integrate their devices and code into their home automation schemes.
Oscar Salguero, Senior Designer at Kid O Toys, NY
Industrial designer by training, Oscar has worked on products ranging from high end furniture in Tokyo to energy generating soccer balls for developing communities in Nigeria and Brazil. He’s currently leading a new line of sensory oriented & developmental toys for kids under 6 years of age.
That’s all folks! Have questions? Ask away here or on twitter using #shapeBits. Happy making!