Award for Best Use of WDC’s Embedded Intelligence Technology
Description:The Award for Best Use of WDC’s Embedded Intelligence Technology (EIT) Award is an annual award that recognizes the engineering innovation team that best integrates any WDC EIT product (in board or chip form) into a potential commercial product that was developed in a senior design project. Specifically, the award will be granted to a student team that has built a smart connected prototype that may have a commercial market. Embedded Intelligence is characterized as the ability of a product to sense, process, communicate, and actuate (SPCA) based upon information gained from an understanding of both itself and others and for the benefit of many. Preference will be given to designs with SPCA capabilities that can demonstrably surpass human abilities to perform the same function.
Background: Embedded Intelligence (EI) is defined and used here to include the combination of software and micro-processing hardware used in Industry 4.0 and beyond Embedded Systems, Intelligent Systems and/or characterized as having Artificial Intelligence. Application specific embedded intelligence is used in a wide range of solutions in products like microwave ovens, refrigerators, pacemakers, smartphones, automobiles, robots, drones, and airplanes. The most common feature of these products, which fall into the category of “Internet of Things (IoT)” is that they communicate with each other (increasingly through what is described as “cloud services,” which constitutes a higher level of intelligence).
Self-Nomination Requirements: In order to self-nominate, the design team is required to visit The Bill and Dianne Mensch Foundation, Inc. website at The MenschFoundation.org which promotes richer computer science and engineering education. There they will gain a better understanding of the concepts associated with EI. In the event the website ceases to exist, the College of Engineering will locate alternative supplemental materials on the topic of EI.
A 1-2 page self-nomination document must be submitted to the College of Engineering. Nomination document(s) may be shared with The Bill and Dianne Mensch Foundation, Inc. in a nonvoting capacity, subject to the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and confidentiality considerations. The document should include a brief description of what was sensed, processed, communicated, and actuated in the system designed in the project. In addition, in keeping with entrepreneurial aspects of the award, the document must include a statement on the innovative value of the designed system to mankind.
Prize: Prize amount is $1,000.