Important Contest Information

Eligibility: Individual students in a middle school (junior high school), in a high-school in grades 7 through 12, or undergraduate program, and between the ages of 12 years and 24 years can participate. We encourage parents and teachers to participate, too, but as informal advisors rather than as project directors or overseers. This contest is open to Domestic and International applicants.

Cost: The contest has NO entry fee.

Those 18 and under: Parental Consent Required

Prizes: The prize money will be awarded as a check payment in the amounts posted within the table to the right. United States winners will receive a 1099 income tax form to report their winnings.

How to Participate: Complete the registration form (Register Now! link below) no later than December 22, 2010 to obtain an applicant number. You will receive an email with your number within 48 hours. Your final project must be submitted by January 4, 2011.

Materials: The submittal must use a microcontroller and LEDs at a minimum. There is no restriction on the type of microcontroller you choose to use for the project, nor is it a factor in the judging criteria. All of these materials must be supplied by the student, parents or a teacher.

In addition to a microcontroller, each entrant may use any combination of individual colored or white LEDs, 7-segment LED displays, bar-graph LED displays, and/or alphanumeric LED displays. Applicants also may use other electronic on-hand components such as transistors, resistors, pushbuttons, and capacitors. The project also can use non-electronic materials such as cardboard, paint, markers, wood, plastic, coat-hangers, shoe boxes, glue, staples, and screws.

When: This challenge ends at 11:59 PM US Pacific Time on January 4, 2011. Sorry, we cannot accept late or partial entries.

Resources: A few resources that might help with your project.

• How to Work with Light-Emitting Diodes (.pdf) 
• LED Multiplexing Circuit Video 55MB (.mov) 
• What's a Microcontroller? Resources page 

Judges and Scoring

Judges: The following judges will review and rate the submissions:

• Jessica Uelmen, Parallax Inc
• Patrick Mannion, EE Times
• Jon Titus, EE Times
• Karen Field, Innovation Generation

Judging Criteria: Projects will be judged according to the following factors (age of entrant will be considered during scoring):

• 25% electrical and electronic ingenuity: Judges will be asking themselves the following questions: Has the entrant simply powered individual LEDs from a power supply or battery? Do LEDs turn on or off electronically or via some sort of switch? Does the display use the MCU to control light intensity through timing or pulse-width modulation? Does the circuit use any multiplexing of LEDs to maximize use of output pins? Has the student chosen components appropriate for the application? Projects should show some level of complexity to win high points in this category.
• 25% overall presentation: This is based on the use of clear English and proper spelling in the Project Report, a quality design (if needed), clarity of explanations, quality of pictures and source code formatting/commenting.
• 25% innovative use of leds: LED's should be used creatively to illuminate parts of a display and can be combined and used in groups and in motion to achieve visual effects. Color should be used effectively and appropriately. Unique applications will receive high points in this category.
• 25% overall quality of the project and craftmanship: Projects should show attention to detail. Circuitry, wiring and materials should be kept neat.

After Registering for the Contest

Communications: When you register you will receive a project number and establish contact with us via e-mail holidayLEDs@parallax.com. We encourage you to post all questions in our Support Forum (information below).

Support Forum - Parallax is operating a special support forum for contest entrants at http://forums.parallax.com under “Parallax & iGen Student Holiday LED Challenge”. Parallax engineers are present in this forum.

Submissions: Please DO NOT send us your physical project. Submissions MUST be done by email to holidayLEDs@parallax.com and include the following:

• project report: In MS Word format with the following sub-headings: Project Number, Project Description, Schematic, Block Diagram (if applicable), Source Code, Bill of Materials and Pictures. PDF is an acceptable substitute if the applicant is able to provide the original graphic files upon request so they may be posted on our web site. All documentation must be provided in clear English language. The project description should be the first attachment in the e-mail message.
• source code: Well-formatted and documented code is required so the judges may develop a reasonable understanding of the functionality. This would be your second attachment in the e-mail message, zipped up if you have more than one file.
• pictures: Submit between three and six different digital photographs of your project, electronics and project in use. Provide the photos in high-resolution format; Parallax Inc. will make any lower-resolution photos for web or print use. MPEG or WMF-formatted videos may also be submitted if the project involves motion. All pictures and videos would be your third attachment to the e-mail, zipped up into a single file. Videos and/or a working prototype are suggested for highly complex entries.

Legal Considerations: Parallax Inc., EE Times Group, and United Business Media LLC (UBM), reserve the right to pull any application at any time for any reason. Employees of Parallax Inc., EE Times Group, and UBM are not eligible to enter the contest. International applicants are encouraged to submit their projects. Parallax Inc., EE Times Group, and UBM, disclaims any responsibility associated with your country's rules or conditions pertaining to entering contests, should they apply. Design submittals will remain the intellectual property of the applicants. Due to the open-project nature of the contest, applicants with submittals of particular commercial value should consider obtaining copyrights or patents. Applicants may copyright their submittals simply by putting a copyright (C) with the author's name and date within the code to provide some form of protection. All applicants grant Parallax Inc., EE Times Group, and UBM non-exclusive web and print publication rights, whether they are selected as a winner or non-winning entrant. Selected projects will be posted in entirety on the Parallax Inc. and iGen websites. Applications may also be published in print in advertisements, images, catalogs or books created by Parallax Inc, EE Times Group, and UBM. By entering, applicants agree to release and hold harmless Parallax Inc., EE Times Group, UBM, and any associates from any and all liability.