element14 announces winners of wireless power design competition

The element14 engineering community has announced two winners in its ‘Beyond the Phone’ Wireless Power Challenge. They were chosen out of 12 finalists from around the world who built wireless power solutions for everyday purposes using technology from Würth Elektronik and Texas Instruments.

Eduardo Iscar Ruland of Spain won the grand prize for his work on a ‘man overboard’ transponder. His build is still in progress and, once complete, has significant implications for those working at sea. As the grand prize winner, Ruland will receive a MacBook Pro with retina display.

Members of the element14 design community have voted Mark Beckett of New Zealand as the winner of the Community Choice award. Beckett integrated wireless power into everything from an e-List application to an illuminated beer tap. The prize for the Community Choice award is a Google Nexus 7.

This competition aimed to liberate design engineers from the tether of traditional power supplies, and ultimately bring wirelessly controlled devices to consumers. This was element14’s second wireless power competition, and the proposed projects evolved significantly from the first such challenge in 2013.