Have you ever met someone who actually built a better mousetrap? What about someone who came up with the idea to add intelligence to otherwise mundane objects like a hospital food tray, radiator, or an ordinary concrete bolt? If you’re in San Jose for the Designers of Things Conference, December 2-3, you’ll find all this and more in the IPSO IoT Pavilion, where ten semi-finalists of the 2015 IPSO CHALLENGE will be demonstrating their prototypes throughout the conference. Winners will be announced during a ceremony on December 2.
The IPSO (Internet Protocol for Smart Objects) Alliance is a global forum that serves as a resource center and thought leader for industries seeking to establish the Internet Protocol as the basis for IoT and M2M applications. Each year, the group challenges entrepreneurs, makers, students, and professionals in the technology sector to show what is possible utilizing the Internet Protocol (IP) and open standards in building the Internet of Things (IoT). As it turns out, the possibilities are endless.
This year, the IPSO Alliance amped up the IPSO CHALLENGE by partnering with Designers of Things to host the IPSO CHALLENGE semi-finalists demos and final awards program as a way to expand their opportunities for networking with industry experts, investors, customers and media in Silicon Valley. Additionally, IPSO member companies ARM, Atmel, Freescale, Intel, Micrium, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments donated dev kits (hardware and software) to expand the scope for innovative development.
A distinguished panel of experts reviewed this year’s entries, and the 10 semi-finalists, announced in August, received promotion, mentorship from IPSO member companies, a travel stipend and display space in the IPSO IoT Pavilion. They’ve all been hard at work putting finishing touches on their prototypes in hopes of winning the grand prize: $10,000 USD. Second and third place winners will receive $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. A panel of experts will evaluate each entry on its design, deployment, ease of use and marketability.
If you’re wondering who those semi-finalists are, and what they will do with the prize money if they win the challenge, you can read all about them here.
