To follow is the first in a series of blogs on the value of participating in the TI Innovation Design Contest.
When American pop star Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol it catapulted her career into stardom. Although Chris Daughtry may only have finished fourth place in the show’s fifth season, his self-named first album became one of the biggest rock debuts of all time. “What American Idol does is give its participants a way to showcase their talent,” says Gene Frantz, Rice University Professor in the Practice of Signal Processing and former TI Principal Fellow. “The impact is just as big, whether you are first, second or third. Ultimately, it is all about being in the game.”
Likened to American Idol, Professor Frantz notes that the TI Innovation Design Contest, which is in its seventh year, is all about showcasing engineering students’ capabilities, in effect creating exposure for up and coming engineering “rock stars.” He says it is a great way for students to get experience using the latest, industry-standard components provided by TI, while demonstrating their drive to be a winner.
“When I was at TI, I would review the student resumes and, along with hands-on experience, I’d look for ‘are you passionate? How are you going to work to change the world?’”
Since the contest launched in 2008, 16 top engineering schools have showcased the talents of their teams, many winning in a top three position multiple times. Rice University is in the lead with a total of four winning teams, including two first place winners, one second and a third. Three-time winners include Ohio State, University of Arizona and the University of Puerto Rico, with Oregon State, University of Arkansas and The University of Texas System (Austin and El Paso) winning twice. Others that have won once include: Michigan State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Central Florida, University of Cincinnati, University of Illinois, University of Florida, University of Toronto and Virginia Tech.
No matter the collective purse, winners of the TI Innovation Design Contest all reflect the drive and passion Frantz is talking about. (See the list of past winners here.)
“It gave us the confidence to continue to bring great ideas to life,” says Mohammad Malik, whose team at the University of Illinois took second place in 2011 for its “Hyperfocal Distance Meter.” Today, Malik is an engineer at Microsoft and also is working on a master’s in integrated circuits at UCLA. While he can’t credit winning with helping him land his current job (he already was an intern at Microsoft when he entered), he says the project and education, in general, did provide a valuable foundation for problem-solving. “It’s not about winning, it’s about being in the competition and learning to further develop and grow yourself.”
Matthew Martino, whose team at the University of Toronto took third place for their project, “A Wireless Sensor Node,” adds that it was “an honor to have my work recognized by engineers at TI. That experience itself was very fulfilling.”
Ultimately, says Gary Woods, Professor in the Practice of Computer Technology Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who co-directs Rice’s Collaborative Capstone program, the TI competition “brings out the students’ best efforts. It’s a mini design project, not unlike working for a start-up company. We expect our top teams to enter.”
In the next installment of this blog series, learn how winning the TI Innovation Design Contest continues to define the course of Adam Samaniego’s career, now a graduate student at Rice University. Samaniego’s team took first place in 2012 for “MobileVision: A portable, scalable retinal imaging system,” a device that allows untrained individuals to take snapshots of a retina for remote diagnosis. He continues to dedicate his future to the project, which is expected to move into clinical trials this fall in collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
The TI Innovation Challenge Design Contest 2015 is now open. Submit your design project using two or more TI analog ICs and a TI Processor by May 24, 2015 for your chance to win!
Register today to receive free contest T-shirts and a $200 TI eStore coupon.
