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3. Texas Instruments Electronics Online Challenge

Texas Instruments (TI) is one of the largest semiconductor design and manufacturing companies in the world. That means we make amazing technology that is inside many of the most innovative electronic products you use every day. For example, you may not have realized it but TI technology is at the heart of the VEX IQ controller and many TI components are used inside the device. We want to challenge you to look at your world with the eyes of an engineer and explore the inner-workings of an electronic device of your choice. Once you choose a product, you will deconstruct the device, catalog what you find inside, and then submit a final report with your findings on what you discovered.

You may not realize it, but TI technology is probably inside many of the electronic products you use every day. For example, TI components are inside the VEX IQ controller, BEATS headphones, GoPro Hero 3 camera, Tesla cars, and the Samsung Galaxy. We challenge you to find a device (we recommend choosing something you don’t mind breaking apart, for example an old phone), and carefully deconstruct the device so you can find out what electronic components are inside. Most semiconductor chips are labeled with the company name and component name. Then conduct online research to discover what the component does and what its role might be within the entire system of the electronic device. Some examples of devices you could select to deconstruct:

• Phone
• Tablet
• Music player
• Pedometer
• Headphones
• GPS navigator
• Speakers
• Garage opener
• Camera
• Computer mouse
• Voice recorder
• Watch

 

Prizes

• 1st: Texas Instruments Electronics Challenge Award, $750 vexrobotics.com gift certificate and automatic team qualification for the 2016 VRC World Championship, GoPro HERO3 camera
• 2nd: $500 verobotics.com gift certificate
• 3rd: $250 vexrobotics.com gift certificate

Eligibility

Entrant grade range: elementary school, middle school, high school, university

VEX competition team requirement: Entry must be from a VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Competition or VEX U team registered for the 2015-2016 season.

Requirements

These are the minimum requirements for this challenge. The “Evaluation” section below will provide additional guidance on how your project will be judged. Failure to fulfill any of these requirements may result in your entry being disqualified from advancing to Finalist or Winner status.

• Final Report (up to 300 words)
  • Introduction identifying the electronic device you selected and why
  • Summary of the chips and components you found inside - were any TI components?
  • Research findings of what these components do and the role they play in the system
  • Conclusion – what were the lessons you learned from this experiment?
• Include at least four (4)  photographs of you and/or your project (does not count towards length)

Judging Information

Judges will select at least ten finalists from the submitted entries and will take community voting results into account in making their choices. The finalist submissions will then be judged by additional selected professionals whose scores will be combined with the preliminary-round judges’ scores to determine the winner of the challenge.

Evaluation

• Clear presentation of findings and organization of content
• Thoroughness of research on the components you found
• Quality of writing, spelling, and grammar
• Visual documentary of your project through the photographs

Current time:
Sun, Oct 6, 2024 12:22 PM CDT

Opens:

Wed, Sep 16, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Closes:

Wed, Jan 13, 2016 11:00 AM CST

Voting Ends:

Fri, Feb 5, 2016 10:59 AM CST

All Entries
View Finalists
View Winners