COPA-DATA presents the winners of the zenon Challenge 2014
In April 2014 COPA-DATA began its engineering, usability and creativity competition "zenon Challenge". Here, teams from all over the world were invited to create tangible and functioning control and visualization applications on the basis of the HMI/SCADA software zenon and LEGO MINDSOTRMS EV3 robots. Out of ten submissions, Team ITS (Image Tweaking System) from the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Austria emerged as winner.
At the beginning of April a total of 20 teams equipped with a LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Kit and zenon from COPA-DATA commenced the race for this year's zenon Challenge. In the end 10 teams fulfilled all requirements for entering the competition and rose to the challenge with intellect, innovation and creativity. Markus Wintersteller, juror for the project design category of the zenon Challenge looks back to the start: "From the beginning we were very curious to find out about the projects and already got an idea from chatting with the participating teams that our expectations would be exceeded. Nobody, however, had banked on such a strong final to the competition. In the video voting the fans were once again enthusiastically mobilized and two teams threw themselves into a neck and neck race right until the last minute. This was pure excitement!"
Public voting as a deciding success factor
The overall ranking was made up of three parts that the teams had to fulfill in order to gain crucial points. 40 percent of the total votes were given by a jury made up of three members. These zenon experts evaluated all of the projects according to project design, usability and creativity. The teams could gain a further 20 percent of the points by answering project-specific questions, the so called Steps to Success. The remaining 40 percent were reached via the online fan community in the form of public votes. By registering and signing-in fans could cast their vote – but only one vote per video – for their favorite project on a daily basis on the www.zenon-challenge.com website. Lisette Lillo Fagerstedt, creativity juror of the zenon Challenge explains: "Particularly the top two teams managed to motivate a large fan community to vote for their project daily. In the end these votes were the deciding factor for a top ranking."
The winning projects of the zenon Challenge 2014
First place: Team ITS – Image Tweaking System, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
The six-member team "ITS – Image Tweaking System", from the Information Technology and Systems Management (ITS) department of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, won the competition with a total of 816 points. The winning project shows a well thought out robot construction, using tiny LEGO bricks to gradually recreate a logo true to detail. The entire package consisting of the zenon project, an entertaining video with the most votes, the full points for the Steps to Success and the highest number of points given by the jury, lead the team to the top podium.
Gero Gruber, usability juror of the zenon Challenge explains: "Early on in the competition it was already obvious that this team would be within the top rankings in the end. The project gained points in the jury ranking particularly due to its usability factor. This is where the team was able to clearly stand out from the competition."
Second place: Team Vives Automation, VIVES University College
The Vives Automation team, from VIVES University College in Belgium, reached second place, only 18 points shy of winning. With their "Delta Robot", which placed plastic balls according to colors into the correct containers, the team was able to build up a large fan community. Reaching maximum points for the Steps to Success as well as the second highest jury evaluation, Vives Automation was able to enter the voting round with a good starting position. In a neck and neck race with Team ITS – Image Tweaking System, only a few pivotal points were missing at the end for the win.
Third place: Team AGH, AGH University of Science and Technology
Team AGH, from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, reached the highest amount of points from the jury evaluation in the engineering category, with its 3-in-1 solution, and claimed third place in the entire competition with this.
Markus Wintersteller recaps: "Team AGH packed all three projects into one video and were able to prove their extensive zenon know-how with the broad scope of their solution. This performance and the outstanding commitment was also rewarded with the many votes from the fan community.”
It was also close for the third place. AGH, with 433 total points, reached only five points more than the "multi-generation team" AVM from Switzerland, who in spite of their great idea and excellent presentation video landed on the – albeit strong – fourth place.
All project videos and information regarding zenon Challenge 2014 and its winners as well as an interview with the victorious Team ITS can be found on the zenon Challenge website at www.zenon-challenge.com.
source: COPA-DATA