LED Challenge winners announced

Innovation Generation (iGEN), the EE Times STEM education site, is proud to announce that the Spectacular Seven team from Oak Canyon Junior High in Lindon, UT, is the winner of our Fall 2011 Student LED Challenge! In the photo, you can see the whole team: From left to right, teacher Ted Hansen, Camille, Aubrey, Katrina, Cassie, Natalie, Melanie, Rachel, and mentor Wayne Rust.

In this Challenge, Innovation Generation partnered with Digi-Key Corp. and Microchip to inspire middle-school and high-school students to learn about electronics. 70 teams of students received kits of LED electronics components and a microcontroller from the sponsors. With help from video, whitepaper, and forum instructions from Challenge technical advisor Jon Titus, the teams designed and created colorful LED displays to highlight something important in their community or school.

We received final completed entries from 21 teams in 16 states across the country, ranging from 5th to 12th grades. From a model of the Golden Gate Bridge to one of an LED version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar, the teams made some fabulously creative entries. The Spectacular Seven’s winning entry was a holiday tree lit up by LEDs to be submitted into the Festival of Trees, a charitable event benefiting the local children’s medical center. Each tree that is donated is auctioned off and the money goes to help children in need.

As our Grand Prize Winners, the OCJH Spectacular Seven's school will receive a $2000 in-kind grant to purchase STEM-based learnng materials; a trip for one to the March Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA; a pass to the show; and attendance at the ACE Awards, where the grant check will be presented with all the appropriate hoopla.