As it happens every year, I run a design contest as part of my undergraduate module on Embedded Systems. This year, we had a larger number of students choosing the module (maybe because we were ranked top teaching in the department last year!), so for the first time we had four teams competing for the coveted prizes: a box of chocolates and a picture on this blog. Their task: to design and implement a multi-hop wireless network using the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, so that a message can be routed from the labs to my office on the other side of our C-shaped building.This year's winners took an unorthodox approach to the network topology. Instead of placing network nodes all the way through the C-shaped corridor as previous winners have done, they decided to take a shortcut through the inner courtyard of the building. Iain Bate was seen giving them some advice about avoiding WiFi interference, which may have tipped the balance towards going outdoors. Luckily for them, the weather was mild and they had no problem to place network nodes over their shortcut (side picture shows the view from my office window). In previous years, rain and snow have prevented other groups from succeeding on that.
Bottom line is: they managed to finish the task before everybody else, in a little over two hours, so they deserve to be immortalised with their picture in the gallery of winners, which also include the top teams from 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011 and 2010 (in 2013, no group managed to finish the challenge).
