This contest has ended and the winners have been announced! Thank you all for participating!

Be sure to check out all the other awesome projects that were submitted!

Presenting Hackaday’s Earth Day Challenge!

Earth Day is April 22, 2021! The first official Earth Day was on April 22, 1970, and was organized by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and environmental activist Denis Hayes.

Earth Day raises awareness of environmental issues, solar, air quality, and promotes water and energy conservation. Developing electronic products to create better environmental sensors and data monitors are perfect Earth Day activities. Now it's your turn to get creative and design a project that helps work towards a better and healthier planet.

We've partnered with Digi-Key on this nature-inspired prompt and they’re offering three winners a shopping spree!

For this contest, we're looking for projects that celebrate Earth Day. Create nature-themed PCBs or electronics, IoT projects that benefit the planet, or a clever project to promote recycling to help keep our planet clean. Get creative and document your project, three people will win a shopping spree of $200 each from Digi-Key.

No matter your experience level, we want to see your projects, so don't be afraid to enter. We can't wait to see what the Hackaday community comes up with! Use #EarthDayDesign on social media to show off your design.

Awards

Thanks to our favorite partner Digi-Key, the top three projects will be awarded a $200 shopping spree to the Digi-Key warehouse.

We're on the lookout for the most artistic projects to be featured in the 2022 Digi-Key Calendar. Towards the end of the year, 12 visually stunning projects from our Digi-Key contests will be chosen to be featured in next year's calendar.

Up to twelve projects, from the Earth Day Challenge and future 2021 contests, will be chosen for most artistic. These 12 projects will score a $50 gift certificate to Tindie and have a chance to be selected as one of the featured projects. 

Examples

Need some inspiration? Here are some projects to check out that should get your ideas flowing:

• uRADMonitor A3 by Radu Motisan. This project is a versatile IoT device designed to track 8 air parameters and map pollution, with both wired and wireless Internet connectivity.
• Gutters to Gardens by Kent Rueckert. A project for a Solar-Powered IoT Rain Barrel used to water home gardens.
• The Earth - A Travel Logger by iSax. Track your travels with this globe project that uses LEDs to display the places you've been. 

• Aluminum Recycling Micro Factory by hominidae. The concept behind this project is to explore the idea of directly recycling aluminum at home.

How to Enter

Start a new project on Hackaday.io. Share images of your project and tell the story of how you designed and built it in the description of your project.

For bills of materials, enter your parts list in the components section of your project.

Once you have published your project, look in the right sidebar for the "Submit project to..." menu in order to enter it in Earth Day Challenge:

Judging Criteria

Here are some criteria judges will have in mind while reviewing entries:

• Is your project relevant as an Earth Day project? (example: Earth shaped PCB)
• Does your project contribute to environmental protection and embody the spirit of Earth Day?
• How original is the project itself?
• Does the project have a bill of materials listed in the components section of the project? 
• How detailed is the documentation?

Earth Day Contest Rules

• This contest runs 12PM PST Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 through 11:59PM PST Monday, April 19th, 2021 (here is a handy countdown timer), and projects must be submitted during this timeframe.
• Sharing schematics, source code, and/or design files are not required, but...