Who cares about Open Design and building the next generation of Connected Devices? It turns out a lot of people do!

The Hackaday Prize put out the call for Open, Connected design ideas and around 800 projects were posted over the last few months to answer that call. The cutoff for documenting your concept and making entry to the contest was just before midnight last Wednesday. Since then our crew has been going through the entries to select 50 to move on as Semifinalists. Here’s who made the cut:

This list of 50 semifinalists will have until 11:50pm PDT on September 28th, 2014 to refine their designs. Congratulations!

You simply must read the Official Rules for all the details about becoming a finalist during the next round of judging. But we can certainly share some pointers we learned from judging the full pool of entries. The video is your time to make your project shine; tell this awesome panel of judges what the project is, why you’re building it, exactly how it is “connected”, and any thoughts you have on future uses or derivatives of the idea. Project logs insight regarding the feasibility of seeing the hardware finished so keep up with those as your build progresses. And as you near the deadline, hone your project Images, Description, and Details to best engage the judges and readers. Keep the updates coming because everyone is excited to find out who it is that will earn a trip to space!

Semifinalists (alphabetical):

This list of semifinalists is presented in alphabetical order by title.

All of these entrants have done great work so far. Good luck as your builds move forward. The clock is already ticking!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention… those hundreds of other prizes that we’ve been mentioning all along will be awarded to all of the entries. If you officially submitted your project before the deadline you will be rewarded for being a Quarterfinalist. Watch for a post later in the week about exactly what and how we’ll be getting it to you. We just need to make sure we have the logistics sorted out before giving out the details. Thanks!