Steve just told us that Design News and MAKE have announced a "Gadget Freak Design Contest!", with a $1000 grand prize...

The contest is for designing and submitting instructions to build a gadget which must "incorporate electronic elements" and "involve sensing, motion, timing and/or networking elements". Sounds like some mbed projects could fit right in here!

If you haven't seen Gadget Freak before, here is the sort of thing that has made it in to the Gadget Freak archives:

You may recognise the guy on the right :) That is Steve with his Billy Bass, the prequel to our Twittering Billy Bass that we made at the end of last year for our launch demo.

For those who haven't seen it yet, check out the result of Steve's Billy Bass hack:

The full writeup of the hack is available here:

• Gadget Freak Case #150: Hotrod your Billy Bass

The grand prize for the MAKE Gadget Freak is $1000 plus you might get your design on MAKE’s online marketplace. Definitely worth a look if you are working on something that could be entered, or might have some ideas.

• http://makezine.com/gadgetfreakcontest/
• btw, from the T&Cs, it looks like it is US only

We've also started a sponsorship program for people doing academic projects and competitions applying microcontrollers. We'd be happy to allocate some places on the program for anyone looking to enter who needs a bit of extra support. Check it out:

• http://mbed.org/sponsorship/

Good luck! Keep us posted if you decide to enter!