Participants will create IoT-enabled gardens and harvest crops with support from vertical farming facilities
July 29, 2015 - CHICAGO - element14, the world's largest online community for design engineers and technology enthusiasts, has selected the 15 finalists who will take part in their new Vertical Farming Design Challenge. These individuals will build indoor vertical gardens using IoT technologies and methods that have the potential to change how food is produced around the world.
"The vertical farming industry presents a real opportunity to address food shortages spurred by environmental and population changes," said Dianne Kibbey, Global Head of Community, element14. "The Vertical Farming Design Challenge is just one of element14's newest initiatives to solve pressing real-world problems by empowering engineers with the technology and resources needed to find a lasting solution. We're excited to see what our participants come up with and are proud to be at the forefront of these efforts."
The 15 participants in the Vertical Farming Design Challenge, and their home countries, are as follows:
· Ognyan Chikov, Bulgaria
· Keith Earns, United States
· John Henderson, United States
· Calla Klafas, Australia
· Erik Lau, United States
· José Marques, Portugal
· James O'Donnell, United States
· Kowshik E Patel, India
· Michael Ratcliffe, United Kingdom
· Rick Reynolds, United States
· Clem Martins, United States
· Ajit Singh, India
· Shane Sissons, United Kingdom
· Joshua Tsai, United States
· Srinivasan Kanni Udaiyar, India
Competitors have until November 2 to create their indoor vertical farms. element14 will provide each participant with a kit of IoT-enabled technologies from Silicon Labsand Wurth Elektronikto help with the designs. Green Spirit Farms, FarmedHereand the Association for Vertical Farming(AVF) will guide challengers though the growing and harvesting process - providing recommendations on moisture, lighting and humidity ranges to be aware of when planting the crops and the optimal time to transfer and harvest those crops.
Along with the resulting crops, entries will be judged on originality, innovation, technical merit and data points collected. The grand prize, second and third prize winners will be announced on November 17 and their awards will be the following:
· Grand Prize - A Global Solar SUNLINQ™ 62-Watt Foldable Solar Panel Kit, The Nest® Learning Thermostat™, a Wurth Elektronik Energy Harvesting Kit and a $250 donation to the AVF in the challenger's name.
· Second Prize - The ALLPOWERS™ 18V 28W Foldable Solar Charger, The Nest® Learning Thermostat™, and a $250 donation to the AVF in the challenger's name.
· Third Prize - The Nest® Learning Thermostat™, and a $250 donation to the AFV in the challenger's name.
All Challengers who submit a completed project will receive a one year membership to the AVF and a $100 donation to the AVF in the challenger's name. Each competitor will provide weekly updates on their progress through blog posts, photos and videos via the element14 Community.
The Vertical Farming Challenge is the latest competition as part of a broader Engineering a Connected Worldinitiative from the element14 Community. The program, which includes a worldwide study of more than 3,500 consumers, is designed to drive innovation by connecting engineers to powerful new ideas, the latest technologies and to each other, and to make the ordinary, extraordinary.
To learn more about the Vertical Farming Design Challenge and follow along with the 15 competitors, visit http://www.element14.com/verticalfarming.
End
About the Premier Farnell Group
Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl) is a global leader in the high service distribution of technology products and solutions for electronic system design, production, maintenance and repair. Trading as Farnell element14in Europe, Newark element14in North America and element14across Asia Pacific, the company had sales last year of £960m. The Group is supported by a global supply chain of more than 3,000 suppliers and an inventory profile developed to anticipate and meet its customers' needs.
Premier Farnell works to bring to market development kits in a variety of applications, enabling it to support the customer from design concept through to production.
The latest products, software, services and solutions from trusted supplier partners are all available through 43 local language transactional websites. The element14 Communityallows buyers and engineers to access a wide range of independent technical information, tools and the latest resources and the Design Centerenables design engineers to compare kits from the world's greatest range of development tools.
For news updates from Premier Farnell and element14 visit:
Premier Farnell News Centre - www.premierfarnell.com/media-centre
Twitter - @element14
YouTube - element14
Facebook - facebook.com/element14page
Email: pressoffice@premierfarnell.com
Premier Farnell Key facts
- Operations in 38 different countries
- More than 4,500 employees
- More than 3,000 leading suppliers
- More than 600,000 products stocked with access to over four million more on demand
- Leaders in providing information on REACH, Conflict Minerals and EU RoHS legislation
For more information visit the website at Premier Farnell.
Global Contact:
Ken Leitch
Global Head of Corporate Communications
Tel: +44 207 851 4145
Email: kleitch@premierfarnell.com
Global PR Agency:
Darren Willsher/Andrew Hill
Wildfire PR
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
Email: element14@wildfirepr.com
European Contact:
Jen Patterson
PR Manager, Europe and Global
Tel: +44 113 2484904
Email: jpatterson@premierfarnell.com
APAC Contact:
Christina Loh
PR Manager, APAC
Tel: + 65 6671 8769
Email: cloh@element14.com
North America Contact:
William Polk
PR and Social Media Manager
Tel: +1 773 907 5199
Email: wpolk@newark.com
distributed by |