element 14 Dreamboard Challenge winner

Interview with Manjuprasad Basangi, element 14 Dreamboard Challenge winner

1. Tell us something about yourself and your interest in electronics design.

I am student in Final Year of Engineering of Electronics and Telecommunication department, from INDIA. I have experience in PCB designing and manufacturing. I have also worked with Atmel AVR,ARM,PIC,LPC2148,Raspberry PI, Arduino.

I am always enthusiastic about developing PCB, custom development board for AVR, PIC & ARM(LPC2148) and Arduino clones, and other projects. The lack of technology in manufacturing Industrial grade PCB and unavailability of components in INDIA forced me to stick with LQFP packages, which can be soldered by hand. I always wanted to develop something like Raspberry PI, Beaglebone etc. But always felt discontented due to lack of funds and technology in manufacturing. Thanks to Element14’s “Build Your Own DreamBoard” campaign helped me to visualise what type of Board I want to make.

2. Share more about Dreamboard challenge, your innovation for this challenge and your experience of associating with this project?

I designed my dreamboard – more details available at http://www.element14.com/dreamboard–in such a way that it can be helpful as a learning tool for students as well as a powerful platform for professionals to build and test their system. The use of a 64 bit processor which is compatible with Linux as well as android lollipop loaded on SD card will help developing various projects.

Competing with over 3,000 students was an exhilarating experience. It helped me push my limits and explore my skills. I am grateful to element14 for organizing such challenges and motivating the engineering community to evolve.

3. Would you like to share special things about this project to our readers which are engineers?

Some of the key features of my Dreamboard are:

• On board Wifi will help devices to run headless with less wires attached.
• Various chip GPIOS, ADC,DAC,UART,CAN,PCI-E will help the board to communicate with the outside word as well as provide facility of expansion of system.
• Other On-board Sensors like Magnetic Hall effect sensor, Ultrasonic sensors, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Temperature will be very useful in Robotic and Drone Projects.
• The Audio I/O will provide facility of on-board audio processing.
• The LVDS port and Touchscreen sensor will allow the board to perform as handheld device and can also be used as Monitoring and Debugging terminal in either robotic or automobile projects to view various parameters.

Full details of the submission are available at http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-77693

4. What is your personal thinking for promoting engineers through such innovative challenge? How it will encourage budding engineers?

Challenges such as the ones organized by element14 help budding engineers not only to explore their abilities but also helps them make their dreams a reality. These challenges bring out a competitive edge in us and help us apply our knowledge to create and innovate further.

These contests also enable the engineering community worldwide to come together under one platform and interact with one another. This helps us learn from others and understand the latest technological developments across the globe.

5. Did you receive any support from university and industry?

element14 being the organizer, supported us with basic tools such as which helped give our thoughts a better shape.

My professors, mentors as well as friends at the university have been extremely supportive and have selflessly provided guidance whenever I needed.