LOUISVILLE, KY – The hobbyist arm of GE Appliances is teaming with a startup online circuit design platform developer to launch the Circuit Board Design Challenge.

FirstBuild, GE Appliances’ global co-creation community, and Upverter say the challenge is targeted toward hardware engineers and hobbyists who have a vision for how home appliances should interact with the Internet of Things community.

Participants will use the web-based Upverter printed circuit design platform to collaborate and submit entries.

The companies are accepting entries for the competition through Jan. 31.

According to GE Appliances, FirstBuild’s community has generated hundreds of ideas waiting to be prototyped. In order to quickly build and evaluate these ideas, a variety of hardware devices from the maker community are often utilized. The available sensors, microcontrollers, single board computers and expansion boards go a long way toward building fast prototypes, but custom circuit boards are still created often so prototypes can interface with existing or new home appliances.

The new program is built on the company's Green Bean contest, launched last September, which provides a USB bridge to many existing GE Appliances. This collaboration hopes to expand the toolbox of appliance hardware development.

“We are betting that an open invention approach will attract the bright ideas that will define the future of their appliances. We are focused on speed to prototype and speed to market,” said Venkat Venkatakrishnan, director of FirstBuild.

For more information, visit www.Firstbuild.com.

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