TechInsights announced April 15 the launch of the Microchip PIC32 Design Challenge, a year-long contest and community sponsored by Microchip Technology Inc. and Digi-Key Corporation. The Design Challenge can be found at www.myPIC32.com.

The objective of this four-phase Design Challenge is to foster a social community where designers can build, test and display their designs to their colleagues through the use of blogs, videos and forums.  This interactive community is made of up of Members and Contestants. Registered Members of the community will have the ability to rate each Contestant’s design according to the design value criteria.  Contestants of the Design Challenge will rely on Microchip’s PIC32 Starter Kit, an easy to use, all-in-one, PIC32-based module ($49 value). A set of three industry expert judges, as well member peers, will vote each week to see who “survives” and wins prizes that help contestants continue their contest journey.

Each week, Members will be eligible for prizes based on their participation and activity within the community. The winning Contestant will receive a home theater system valued at $8000, although the total value of prizes for Members and Contestants throughout the contest exceeds $100,000.

“This Design Challenge will be a great opportunity for engineers to learn a great deal and show their expertise in 32-bit design. Also, the social aspect of peers rating, voting and even collaborating on the best designs will be exciting,” says Richard Nass, Editor in Chief of Embedded Systems Design and Challenge judge.

Terry West, PIC32 Marketing Manager at Microchip agrees. “With more than $100,000 in prizes to be won by contestants and community members, the Microchip PIC32 Design Challenge is more than just a design contest: this is a unique opportunity for the design community to see some of the world’s best engineers push the limits of creativity and skill and interactively participate in leading-edge 32-bit designs using Microchip’s new PIC32 microcontroller.”

“We are very excited for the opportunity to partner with Microchip and CMP as the exclusive distributor on the MyPIC32 Design Contest,” said Tony Harris, vice president of E-Commerce at Digi-Key. “As provider of the industry’s preeminent Web site for design engineers, OEMs, and purchasers, Digi-Key adds a great outreach solution to the design contest. We look forward to driving traffic for our contest partners, and, as always, efficiently and expeditiously delivering product into the hands of the engineering community.”

For contest rules and eligibility requirements, please visit www.myPIC32.com.