DigiKey announces winners of ElectronicWings IoT + AI Project Design Challenge

₹6,00,000 in prizes were awarded for the most creative projects

BENGALURU, India – DigiKey, the global distribution leader of electronic components and automation products, is pleased to announce the winners of the ElectronicWings IoT + AI Project Design Challenge 2025. Makers and students in India were invited to submit their innovative IoT- and AI-focused ideas for a chance to win their share of prizes and boards worth ₹6,00,000 to help bring the ideas to life.

This year’s contest received 631 submissions from 1,551 participants. From these submissions, the top 50 projects were shortlisted based on their potential for meaningful social impact, technical innovation and creativity. DigiKey provided hardware development boards from suppliers, including Analog Devices’ MAX78000 FEATHER BOARD, Arduino’s UNO R4 WIFI and Espressif Systems’ ESP32-C6-DEVKITC-1-N8, to the top 50 projects so students and makers could bring them to life.

This sponsorship reflects DigiKey’s commitment to empowering India’s engineering community through monetary support and access to its extensive ecosystem of technical resources, including design tools, application notes, reference designs and educational content.

“DigiKey is proud to support the ElectronicWings IoT + AI Project Design Challenge, which plays a meaningful role in nurturing innovation among hobbyists, makers and students in India,” said Ben Brookes, director, regional marketing for DigiKey. “We are inspired by the creativity shown by all participants and extend our sincere congratulations to the winners. DigiKey remains committed to supporting engineers throughout their journey from concept and design to prototype and beyond.”

The winning projects include:

• First place: Forest Guard: A Decentralized Edge-AI LoRa Mesh Network for Forest Surveillance by Mukesh Sankhla
• Second place: EleTect V2: Smarter Warnings Safer Journeys by Abhinav Powertrain and Amritha M
• Third place: SafeGuard: Ultimate Safety Add-on and Smart Control for Ordinary Gas Regulators by Barely Works

First place received ₹80,000, second place ₹40,000 and third place ₹30,000. In addition to the top three awards, the challenge also awarded the top five creative projects with ₹10,000 each. All project submissions also received complementary prizes from DigiKey. These projects showcased a diverse range of impactful solutions across IoT, AI/ML, hardware design, automation and embedded systems, highlighting the growing innovation within the ElectronicWings community.

For more information about the suppliers and products in DigiKey’s portfolio, visit DigiKey.com.