IoT Innovation Challenge | Bosch Sensortec

Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge

May 15 – September 30, 2021

Digital Student Team Challenge

Up to € 1,500 to be won

May 15 – September 30, 2021

Award Ceremony at MikroSystemTechnik Kongress 2021

The Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge is a unique online competition where student teams combine hardware and software tools to develop fascinating sensor-based IoT solutions.

Do you have an innovative idea and want to realize it by using Bosch Sensortec sensors and development platforms? Put your team of up to 5 members together, join our digital student team challenge and win up to € 1,500 for your hit idea!

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Solutions

In keeping with the motto “IoT – Invented for life” we are looking for solutions in the following focus areas:

Consumer Electronics

Consumer Electronics

Today, sensors are a core element of any consumer electronic device (e.g. smartphones, hearables, wearables), equipping them with senses such as hearing, sight and touch. The constantly growing demand for an immersive experience from consumer electronics requires innovative solutions that make devices smart and energy efficient. Our MEMS based accelerometers, gyroscopes and barometric pressure sensors are the enablers for meeting these growing demands. We are looking for sensor-based solutions in such devices.

Air Quality

In both indoor and outdoor environments, poor air quality can greatly impact our health and well-being. Two important indicators for air pollution measurement are small particulate matters (PM) of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The measurement is enabled by using MEMS sensors, such as the BME688. The gas sensor within the BME688 can detect a broad range of gases such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) in order to measure air quality for personal well-being. Which applications come to your mind that could help improve air quality?

Smart Building & Home Applications

Smart home technology is changing the way we live, infusing new levels of convenience, security, control and efficiency in our day-to-day lives. We can manage smart homes for example by controlling heating, venting and air conditioning from distance via smartphones or through home automation control. In order for these applications to run reliably and accurately, precise and low-power measurement of motion and environmental data is needed. We encourage you to submit your ideas for innovative technologies enabling new applications to make our homes a better place to live.

Fitness & Well-being

Sensing solutions accompany people in their daily lives. From setting alarms, navigating through cities and buildings to tracking fitness and health. Wearables improve our well-being by detecting the air quality of our environment. Smart fitness wear improves the efficiency of our workouts by measuring our speed and calorie consumption. All these wearable applications have one thing in common: they are enabled by almost invisible MEMS sensors. We are looking for sensor-based solutions that improve fitness and well-being.

Timeline

By April 30, 2021

Registration

May 12, 2021

Digital Kick-Off Event & Workshop

May 15, 2021

Competition Begins

June 30, 2021

1st Milestone - Idea Video

Resources & Information

Community

Bosch Sensortec Community

You have a technical question? The Bosch Sensortec Community will support you. Register now and post your question in the MEMS sensors forum using the message tag "IoT Innovation Challenge".

Click on Step by Step for guidance.

To the Bosch Sensortec Community

Pit Stop Meetings

During the competition each team has the opportunity to participate in two Pit Stop Meetings. During these meetings the teams can ask questions, present the status quo of their project and get feedback. The meetings will be arranged via e-mail once the challenge starts.

Documents

Starter Kit

All admitted teams will receive a starter kit by mail after the start of the Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge. The starter kit includes the following hardware:

Arduino Development Board

Sensors on the board: BHI260AP, BMM150, BMP390 , BME688
Mounting options: SMT / Thru-hole (Breadboard)
Processor: nRF52832 (Cortex M4F, 512K Flash, 64KB RAM)
Portability: Ultra small: ~18mm x 22mm, Options to use batteries (Li-po), NVM Flash (data-logging, configuration parameters, etc)
Software: Arduino IDE – Open source environment, PnP (Arduino’s ESLOV abstraction)
Connectivity: BLE (nRF52832 u-blox module, ANNA-B112), ESLOV (Arduino PnP and daisy-chaining interface)

_{Or similar development board. Final product specifications to be confirmed.}

BME688 Development Kit

“BME688 dev-kit board”(ordering code 0330.EKB.016), which is an Adafruit feather compatible shield (see https://www.adafruit.com/feather)
“Adafruit HUZZAH32” feather board with an ESP32 MCU (see https://www.adafruit.com/product/3591)
MicroSD card for data storage
CR1220 coin cell battery for the real-time clock

More information about setting up the BME688 Development Kit

Mentors

The following experts from Bosch Sensortec will support and advise you in the Pit Stop Meetings:

Kamal Kant Joshi

Job title:
Head of Software Projects

What I am doing at Bosch Sensortec:
I am planning, managing and executing software projects with widely spread teams across the globe. Furthermore, I am responsible for steering software projects, maintaining the software portfolio and managing development partners.

My area of expertise:
Software engineering with focus on embedded systems and digital signal processing.

About me:
I spent my childhood in the Himalayan country, Nepal and later moved to India for higher studies. I joined Bosch Sensortec, India in 2007 and later moved to the Bosch Sensortec headquarter in Germany. I am an electronics engineer from the studies and spend my free time traveling and making music.

Florian Caulet

Job title:
Field Application Engineer Europe

What I am doing at Bosch Sensortec:
As part of our technical sales team, I support our customers and partners from product selection to technical hardware and software integration and usage.

My area of expertise:
Embedded software engineer by training. I have spent the last 4 years supporting the development of various exciting embedded systems proof-of-concepts and designs.

About me:
I am passionate about robotics and I am lucky to work in a field that allows me to follow some of the latest trends and technologies in the world of embedded systems.

Rudolf Bichler

Job title:
Senior Manager Software Engineering

What I am doing at Bosch Sensortec:
I am head of the Engineering Software department, which is a group of about 20 signal processing and machine-learning experts. We develop solutions for sensor calibration, orientation processing, inertial navigation and AI based applications. As a line manager, my focus is on my team - happy teams provide the best results!

My area of expertise:
I worked more than 15 years in mobile telecommunications as an embedded software developer.

About me:
I like my job! Furthermore, I play a lot of golf and visited many extremely cool courses all over the world!

Dominik Neeser

Job title:
Senior Manager Software Engineering

What I am doing at Bosch Sensortec:
Together with my colleagues, I develop sensor-based applications ranging from always-on use cases for wristbands and hearables up to powerful applications for smartwatches or smartphones that are serving millions of users every day.

My area of expertise:
15 years of experience working on embedded systems & software in the automotive and consumer industry - including four exciting years of pre-development and scouting for new business areas for sensing solutions.

About me:
I survived the first official game of American Football ever played in the city of Reutlingen - now (and comparably exhaustive) I am enjoying family life with my three young kids.

Aibin Paul Lazar

Job title:
Software Product Owner

What I am doing at Bosch Sensortec:
Together with my team, I develop new use cases for inertial and environmental sensors, using signal processing and embedded AI algorithms. My main contribution is to maximize value of the product developed by the team.

My area of expertise:
With 14 years of experience in consumer electronics field, I brought a number of products from concept to market. My focus is on signal processing and machine learning applications for embedded systems.

About me:
I am from India and have been living in Germany for 2 years. I like to travel, listen to music and explore the nature with my family. I used to play soccer but nowadays not that much.

Divya Thukkaram

Job title:
Product Manager

What I am doing at Bosch Sensortec:
I am responsible for several motion sensors through the entire lifecycle, which involves different stakeholders from engineering, to marketing, to sales and operations team. Basically, my role at Bosch Sensortec is to bring the products to market and ensure that they serve the target segment and adapt them when needed.

My area of expertise:
Several years of experience ranging from embedded software development to project management to product management in both automotive and consumer electronics industry.

About me:
When I am not busy thinking about my products at Bosch Sensortec or about my two adorable kids back home, I spend my time in reading, traveling and exploring the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.

FAQ

1. What is the Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge?

It is a 4.5-month, solution-oriented and digital innovation challenge for students focusing on IoT and sensor technology. The competition is organized by Robert Bosch GmbH, Bosch Sensortec GmbH together with the VDE/VDI Society for Microelectronics, Microsystems and Precision Engineering (GMM) and is part of the MikroSystemTechnik (MST) Kongress 2021, one of the largest conferences in the field of microelectronics and microsystems technology.

2. What needs to be done?

With the possibility to get expert support, student teams of 2 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) members are challenged to develop IoT solutions, enabled by sensors and development platforms of Bosch Sensortec. In keeping with the motto "IoT – Invented for Life", Bosch is looking for sensor-based solutions in the following thematic areas: Consumer electronics, air quality, smart building & home applications and fitness & well-being.

3. Who can participate?

Students enrolled at a university in the European Community or at a university that maintains a close academic cooperation with a European University. Students employed at Bosch Sensortec during the Challenge, or up until 1 month before the Challenge (April 15 - May 15, 2021), are excluded from participation.

4. Do I need to have any specific qualification to be a participant of the challenge?

You should be familiar with electronic microsystems and IoT applications, including the process of equipping objects with sensors, actuators, and processors that involve hardware board design and development, software systems, web APIs, and protocols, which together provide a connected environment of embedded systems.

5. Can I participate alone?

No, you can’t. You either need to find your mates and register in a team of 2 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) people or register alone and the organizers will assign you team mate(s).

We also provide a Team-Matching group on LinkedIn. In this group you have the possibility to exchange with other students and to find further team members.

6. I have an idea, what do I need to do?

1) Click on ‘Register now’ to get to the Junction App.

2) Register to Junction App by 30th of April 2021.

3) Wait until pre-selection of the teams ends.

4) Receive your starter kit by 15th of May 2021.

5) Start working on your project!

6) Submit a short video presenting your idea by 30th of June 2021 on the Junction App.

7) Submit your final project presentation and demo video by 30th of September 2021 via a Google form that will be provided to you.

7. Do I need to have the idea fully working?

You should be able to provide a rough-and-ready proof of concept and function such that your idea can be demonstrated for review by the judges. This can be either done by building a prototype or functional demonstrator.

8. Are there any restrictions on using a number of pre-built libraries?

There is no restriction to use any language, technology stack, or libraries. You can use any of them to create your solution. However, if you use third party material, please indicate it in your project report.

9. How is the environment? Will you provide any IDE to work on ideas?

You can use the Arduino IDE – open source environment and PnP (Arduino’s ESLOV abstraction).

10. How can I submit my final project?

At the end of the 4.5 months development phase your final project documentation should be handed in via a Google form that will be provided to you. Following documents are required:

A project presentation addressing the evaluation criteria and giving a synopsis of your idea. The presentation should not exceed 15 slides. Please use this Project Report Template. (Possible formats: ppt, pptx, pdf)
A demo video that demonstrates your idea (max. 3 minutes). (Possible formats: Mov, MP4, Avi, Mpg)
A link to your GitHub repository to share your library.

Please list any third-party materials that were used to build your solution (e.g., pre-built libraries) and specify source.

The documents can only be handed in as a document link via an online file storage tool incl. Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox.

Submission deadline: 30th of September 2021. For details please see the Rules and Regulations of the Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge.

Rules and Regulations

11. What does the evaluation method look like?

The submitted projects will be evaluated by a professional jury consisting of members of the MST Kongress’ steering committee, Robert Bosch GmbH and Bosch Sensortec GmbH. Depending on the number of registered teams, the competition will be held in one or two stages. A maximum of 10 teams will be admitted to the finals at the MST Kongress in November 2021 in Ludwigsburg.

12. What are the evaluation criteria?

All team projects are compared and evaluated on the basis of the following weighted criteria:

Innovation (30%)
Feasibility (20%)
User Experience (20%)
Functional Demonstrator (20%)
Presentation Style (10%)

For details please see the Rules and Regulations of the Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge.

Rules and Regulations

13. Is the participation free of charge?

Yes, the challenge is free to enter.

14. Who owns the intellectual property of the developed solutions?

Participants grant Bosch Sensortec a non-exclusive, sublicensable, transferable, worldwide, perpetual right to use any work results, whether protected by intellectual property rights, copyrights or other similar rights or not, created by participants during the course of the Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge. Upon request of Bosch, participants will grant an exclusive license (in the same scope as listed above) or transfer ownership rights in such work results against an appropriate compensation to be paid by Bosch Sensortec. Each member of a team of participants is entitled to agree on the appropriate compensation in a legally binding way for all team members.

15. How do I register a team?

All registration related things happen on the Junction App.

1) When registering on the Junction App, choose ‘Yes’ when asked if you are applying as a team.

2) Click the ☰ icon in the top left corner of the page and go to team page.

3) If you are the team lead, click ‘Create a new team’.

4) The platform now generates you a unique team code. Send this team code to your team members.

5) If you are a member of a team, ask your team lead for the team code. Go to the same team page and insert the team code to join an existing team. If you have not received a code from your team lead, ask the team lead to follow these instructions.

Link sharing is not possible through the Junction App, so please share the team code between all team members for example by e-mail.

16. Does the team leader have a special task?

Yes, he serves as the team's first point of contact for the organizers and receives the starter kit for the challenge by mail. It is his responsibility that all members of the team will receive the content of the communication with the organizers of the challenge.

17. What does the starter kit contain?

The starter kit contains two Arduino Development Boards* with the following sensors: BHI260AP, BMM150, BME688, BMP390 , as well as a BME688 Development Kit. Software is available for download on the Bosch Sensortec website www.bosch-sensortec.com, subject to the Bosch Sensortec license terms. Additionally Software is available for download on the Arduino website https://www.arduino.cc/en/software, subject to the Arduino license terms.

* Or similar development board. Final product specifications to be confirmed. .

18. Where will the Challenge take place?

Phase 1: Student teams develop their own IoT solution online from 15th of May to 30th of September 2021.

Phase 2: The 10 best teams present their projects at the MikroSystemTechnik (MST) Kongress 2021, which will take place from 8th to 10th of November 2021 in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

19. Is there reimbursement for travel?

Yes, we do offer reimbursement for travel expenses for the 10 best teams who are invited to the MikroSystemTechnik Kongress.

20. Didn’t find what you were looking for?

Write us an email and we will help you out or see the General Terms and Conditions for Participants by Bosch Sensortec GmbH.

May 15 – September 30, 2021

The Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge is a unique online competition where student teams combine hardware and software tools to develop fascinating sensor-based IoT solutions.

Ending in

Solutions

Consumer Electronics

Consumer Electronics

Air Quality

Air Quality

Smart Building & Home Applications

Smart Building & Home Applications

Fitness & Well-being

Fitness & Well-being

Timeline

Resources & Information

Community

Bosch Sensortec Community

Pit Stop Meetings

Pit Stop Meetings

Documents

Documents

Starter Kit

Arduino Development Board

Arduino Development Board

BME688 Development Kit

BME688 Development Kit

Mentors

Kamal Kant Joshi

Kamal Kant Joshi

Florian Caulet

Florian Caulet

Rudolf Bichler

Rudolf Bichler

Dominik Neeser

Dominik Neeser

Aibin Paul Lazar

Aibin Paul Lazar

Divya Thukkaram

Divya Thukkaram

FAQ

1. What is the Bosch Sensortec IoT Innovation Challenge?

2. What needs to be done?

3. Who can participate?

4. Do I need to have any specific qualification to be a participant of the challenge?

5. Can I participate alone?

6. I have an idea, what do I need to do?

7. Do I need to have the idea fully working?

8. Are there any restrictions on using a number of pre-built libraries?

9. How is the environment? Will you provide any IDE to work on ideas?

10. How can I submit my final project?

11. What does the evaluation method look like?

12. What are the evaluation criteria?

13. Is the participation free of charge?

14. Who owns the intellectual property of the developed solutions?

15. How do I register a team?

16. Does the team leader have a special task?

17. What does the starter kit contain?

18. Where will the Challenge take place?

19. Is there reimbursement for travel?

20. Didn’t find what you were looking for?

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