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Student Designed Hand Grabs Top Award
Graduate student team from Guadalajara, Mexico, develops innovative hand prosthesis application to win $10,000 grand prize from Freescale
ORLANDO, Fla. (Freescale Technology Forum) – June 25, 2007 – Freescale Semiconductor has announced the grand-prize winner in the company’s Black Widow $10,000 Design Challenge. The winning entry, a myolectric hand prosthesis based on Freescale’s 8-bit S08 microcontrollers (MCUs), was developed by a team of engineering students from the ITESO graduate school at the Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The ITESO graduate student team designed the myoelectric hand prosthesis to benefit hand amputees living in world regions where affordable health care products and services are a vital necessity. Throughout the design process, the team focused on minimizing system cost without compromising user comfort and product functionality.
The award-winning ITESO graduate team includes Alan Led Collins, Gabriel Herrera, Sergio Santana, Missael Maciel, Andres Alvarez, Carlos Soto and Ramon Guillen, all from Guadalajara.
“On behalf of the entire team, we’d like to thank Freescale for this exciting opportunity to develop a cost-effective prosthetics application that ultimately may benefit many thousands of people around the world,� said Alan Led Collins Rivera, the ITESO team leader. “It’s rewarding to know that our hard work is being acknowledged at the prestigious Freescale Technology Forum. The first-prize award will enable us to continue to improve our product by testing lighter and tougher materials, as well as conducting research to design an affordable prosthetic glove.�
Freescale selected the Black Widow Design Challenge winners from a field of more than 775 participants. Each submission was judged on creativity, design efficiency, technical complexity, number of Freescale devices used, and overall application innovation and usefulness
“The ITESO team’s myoelectric hand prosthesis stood out among the many hundreds of entries as a winning concept,� said Jeff Bock, global product marketing manager for Freescale’s Consumer and Industrial Microcontroller Operation. “The ITESO application not only balances creativity and practicality, it also may prove to be of significant benefit to humanity by enabling a cost-effective solution for hand amputees in need of affordable health care.�
The second-place winner in the Black Widow Design Challenge is Rakesh Reddy, an engineering student from Marquette University. Rakesh’s electronic prototype of the popular “Etch-a-Sketch� toy enables sketches to be saved, retrieved and recreated electronically on a tablet controlled by an S08 MCU. The third-place winning design is a therapeutic massager designed by Feisal Hurzook, Andrew Webster and Antonio Nucaro of Archronix, a technology design and product engineering firm specializing in hardware control systems. The Archronix team’s S08-based handheld healthcare technology is designed for doctors, chiropractors and massage therapists.
About the Black Widow Design Challenge
The Black Widow $10,000 Design Challenge rewards the most inventive designs with cash prizes and high-profile recognition. The contest provided entrants with free technical training and a discounted price for the USBSYPDER08 development tool supporting Freescale’s MC9S08QG, MC9S08QD and MC9RS08KA families of 8-bit microcontrollers. Registration for the design challenge opened January 2007 and closed in April. For additional information about the contest and the winners, visit www.freescale.com/blackwidow.
About Freescale Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2006 sales of $6.4 billion (USD). www.freescale.com
The ITESO graduate student team designed the myoelectric hand prosthesis to benefit hand amputees living in world regions where affordable health care products and services are a vital necessity. Throughout the design process, the team focused on minimizing system cost without compromising user comfort and product functionality.
The award-winning ITESO graduate team includes Alan Led Collins, Gabriel Herrera, Sergio Santana, Missael Maciel, Andres Alvarez, Carlos Soto and Ramon Guillen, all from Guadalajara.
“On behalf of the entire team, we’d like to thank Freescale for this exciting opportunity to develop a cost-effective prosthetics application that ultimately may benefit many thousands of people around the world,� said Alan Led Collins Rivera, the ITESO team leader. “It’s rewarding to know that our hard work is being acknowledged at the prestigious Freescale Technology Forum. The first-prize award will enable us to continue to improve our product by testing lighter and tougher materials, as well as conducting research to design an affordable prosthetic glove.�
Freescale selected the Black Widow Design Challenge winners from a field of more than 775 participants. Each submission was judged on creativity, design efficiency, technical complexity, number of Freescale devices used, and overall application innovation and usefulness
“The ITESO team’s myoelectric hand prosthesis stood out among the many hundreds of entries as a winning concept,� said Jeff Bock, global product marketing manager for Freescale’s Consumer and Industrial Microcontroller Operation. “The ITESO application not only balances creativity and practicality, it also may prove to be of significant benefit to humanity by enabling a cost-effective solution for hand amputees in need of affordable health care.�
The second-place winner in the Black Widow Design Challenge is Rakesh Reddy, an engineering student from Marquette University. Rakesh’s electronic prototype of the popular “Etch-a-Sketch� toy enables sketches to be saved, retrieved and recreated electronically on a tablet controlled by an S08 MCU. The third-place winning design is a therapeutic massager designed by Feisal Hurzook, Andrew Webster and Antonio Nucaro of Archronix, a technology design and product engineering firm specializing in hardware control systems. The Archronix team’s S08-based handheld healthcare technology is designed for doctors, chiropractors and massage therapists.
About the Black Widow Design Challenge
The Black Widow $10,000 Design Challenge rewards the most inventive designs with cash prizes and high-profile recognition. The contest provided entrants with free technical training and a discounted price for the USBSYPDER08 development tool supporting Freescale’s MC9S08QG, MC9S08QD and MC9RS08KA families of 8-bit microcontrollers. Registration for the design challenge opened January 2007 and closed in April. For additional information about the contest and the winners, visit www.freescale.com/blackwidow.
About Freescale Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2006 sales of $6.4 billion (USD). www.freescale.com
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