element14.com, an Avnet community, has announced the winners of its most recent community challenge, encouraging female engineers to create an electronic project video in the style of the increasingly popular element14 Presents series.

The Grand Prize winner is Surbhika Rastogi from Uttar Pradesh, India, who created an informative video for making an automatic soap/sanitizer dispenser system. In the video, Rastogi talked through how she used an Arduino UNO, IR sensor and pump made with bottle caps and a motor lifted from an RC car, to make this innovative dispensing system that offers a contact-free way to reduce the spread of germs during the pandemic.

Other winners represent a wide array of experience, skillsets and geographies, ranging from women with PhDs and Masters Degrees to those who are self-taught designers. Their videos include directions for a light up “cycling shrug” by a costume designer from western Missouri to help cyclists stand out on the road at night, a robot vacuum created by a college student in Sydney, Australia and a smartboard alarm created by a master’s student in northern Italy that signals when food is about to expire.

“The one thing this diverse and global group of women has in common is that the vast majority are young engineers,” said Dianne Kibbey, Global Head of Community and Social Media for the element14 Community. “If you want to see what the future of women in engineering might look like, we have a snapshot right now. These are women who want to change the world and are using electronics to do it. We’re so happy to have a chance to celebrate them and look forward to many of them joining the element14 Community as video content producers in the future.”

Everyone who participated in this challenge is eligible to become a paid content producer for the element14 Community and contribute to the series of element14 Presents videos shared every Wednesday and Friday.

Launched during Women’s History Month in March, the contest sought to highlight female designers and engineers creating innovative works. Each of the top ten winners received $500 for their submissions, and the Grand Prize winner received a digital camera kit for producing high-quality videos worth $1,800.

element14 is part of Newark, the global multi-channel distributor of electronic components, and an Avnet company, 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.

Visit the element14 website to see the full list of winners, and learn more about element14 Presents.

Newark, the Development Distributor, the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of the BBC micro:bit, is working to support product-led educational initiatives globally. Programs supported by Newark aim to create fun and interactive learning opportunities for students to develop an understanding of computing and electronics at a young age, and build a pathway to a range of engineering and technology-driven careers.

One of the latest programs to be supported by Newark is the series of how-to videos featuring micro:bit that are part of the element14 Community’s element14Presents: The Learning Circuit video series. In these instructional videos, host Karen Corbeill takes viewers through different ways to learn and explore with micro:bit. These short videos teach users how to apply micro:bit to their designs and offer instruction and advice on bringing projects to life.

“Getting started with electronics can be quite daunting,” said Karen Corbeill. “micro:bit is a great gateway tool with an amazing number of features for such a low price point. From being able to program using code blocks or simply clipping on accessories without having to solder or even just grabbing a piece of pre-programmed code, it is a wonderful way to get newbies hooked on electronics."

Newark also continues to work with governments, re-sellers and strategic partnerships to support product-led educational initiatives globally. The micro:bit has experienced significant success since its launch through a program led by the BBC in the UK in 2016. Since this date, over 2.5m micro:bit boards have been sold globally, supporting programs as far flung as Denmark, Canada and Singapore. Sales of this popular coding device almost doubled in the last 12 months, over the previous period, with more than half of sales supporting broad educational programs.

The latest program is currently being rolled out in Norway. Entitled “super:bit”, this project is a collaboration between the national science centers, the organization “Teach kids code” and national broadcaster NRK, in Norway. The national rollout provides a classroom kit of technology to each of the 2,400 secondary schools in Norway, over two years, starting in September 2019. The kits have an interactive smart city theme and pupils will learn how to use the micro:bit through applications such as planning traffic flow around green spaces by using sensors to control traffic lights. The kits, shipped by Farnell, include micro:bits, robots, and other electronic and non-electronic components.

“We are committed to supporting the education of future generations of engineers by making it easier to introduce children to the world of electronics,” said Lee Turner, Global Head of Semiconductors and Single Board Computers at Farnell and Newark. “Series such as The Learning Circuit enable users to better understand electronics with easy access to expertise and educational resources in the form of the videos. Newark, as the manufacturer and distributor of the micro:bit, and global electronics distributor, is uniquely able to support these programs.”

“Our mission to help children and teachers to take their first steps with technology and broaden participation with digital creativity continues to grow with multiple large scale programs in over 30 countries,” added Gareth Stockdale CEO, micro:bit Educational Foundation. We continue to work with Newark to ensure that the BBC micro:bit is available all around the world and that children are able to expand their computational thinking and create their best digital future.”

micro:bit products, accessories and a variety of free-to-download educational resources and lesson plans are available online from Newark in North America, Farnell in EMEA and element14 in APAC. To watch The Learning Circuit visit https://www.element14.com/community/community/element14-presents/thelearningcircuit

element14.com, the community for engineers, is launching a search for the next “Ben Heck” though a global contest entitled “Hack like Heck”. The contest, running until mid-April, is based on one of Ben’s popular hacks, the Raspberry Pi MAME Mod, as featured in Episodes 322 and 328 of “The Ben Heck Show”. Community members will be challenged to build the project, film their progress and post a video within a three week period.

The “Hack like Heck” contest breaks into six acts:

·Act 1: Auditions - With a Couple of Chances to Win! - Closes Wednesday, 9-March

·Act 2: Declare Your Intention to participate!

·Act 3: Create Your Project and Video!

·Act 4: element14 Maker Film Festival

·Act 5: Voting for the Winners

·Act 6: Grand Prize Winner Announcement

The element14 community is asking for 15-30 second audition tapes to be submitted online by 9^th March 2018. At the end of the entry period, the best 10 entries will be chosen by the element14 team and will receive the Bill of Materials from the original build to get them started as well as the unique opportunity to join a Skype session with the entire cast of “The Ben Heck Show” allowing them to talk about the original build and the teams experiences filming and modding over eight years.

But members don’t have to win the auditions to enter the main contest – element14 community members can still submit a video of them building the project by 2^nd April 2018 to be eligible to win.

All final submitted videos will be published on 4^th April as part of the “element14 Maker Film Festival”. Community members will be able to vote for their favorite video and Hacker. The top ten finishers each get $500 and one of those ten will get to visit Madison Wisconsin, where “The Ben Heck Show” is filmed and appear in a future episode.

Dianne Kibbey, Head of community and social media for Premier Farnell said: “We’re always exploring new ways to attract fresh content for our community members to watch. We are disappointed that Ben is leaving “The Ben Heck Show” after eight amazing years - but look forward to working with a number of new video content partners, building new relationships, and some great new content! I encourage any of our members who have thought ‘I could do that’ to have a go and Hack like Heck.”

Benjamin Heckendorn, known as Ben Heck, will be leaving “The Ben Heck Show” in July 2018. He stated: “Being part of The Ben Heck Show has been a dream job. All my electronics parts are paid for, I get to build what I want, and I never have to read the YouTube comments! It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s also been a lot of deadlines and after eight years it feels the right time to hand over the soldering iron to someone else”.

To find out more visit the element14 community.