Competition Guidelines

1) INTRODUCTION

KUPROS Inc is about to start full-scale production of the world's most conductive 3D printer filament. The prototype KUPROS Cu-29 filament is 80x more conductive than filaments currently available today, and can be used in consumer-grade 3D printers (so you don’t need to spend $250k or more for a printer to create a conductive circuit!)

To demonstrate the huge impact this new conductive 3D printing technology will have on the Additive Manufacturing market, we’re calling on all 3D printing enthusiasts to submit entries for our “Embedded Electronic Circuit 3D Printing Competition”.

We will select 10 finalists from the submissions and print them at our facility using our MAKERGEAR M3-ID 3D printer. The final products will then be demonstrated, and videos posted on our website for 3D printing enthusiasts to vote for the winning submission.

2) COMPETITION OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the competition is to demonstrate the level of sophistication of embedded 3D printed electronic circuits that can be created on consumer-grade 3D printers. The design should demonstrate functionality that can be observed and assessed via a video.

3) PRIZES

The following prizes will be awarded to the 10 developers who are shortlisted:

1st Prize – 4 spools of Cu-29 conductive filament ($10,000)

2nd Prize – 2 spools of Cu-29 conductive filament ($5,000)

3rd Prize – 1 spool of Cu-29 conductive filament ($2,500)

Remaining 7 shortlisted finalists – ½ spool of Cu-29 conductive filament ($1,250)

4) SHORTLIST SCORING

All submissions will be assessed against the following criteria:

a. Sophistication of the final product

b. Utility of the final product

c. Visual impact

d. Ease of printing

e. Elegance of the design

5) DESIGN CRITERIA

The following mandatory criteria must be met for the submission to be put through to the scoring phase:

a) We will be using a MakerGear M3-id with a build volume of 150mm x 200mm x 150mm. Please use this maximum build volume in your design.

b) Print material KUPROS Cu-29 conductive filament and PLA filament.

c) Power requirements. We prefer your system be designed to have an onboard battery receptacle. The battery holder is to be integral to the printed product. We would love to power the system while it's still on the build tray. If your design uses an external power source, we will need to know the voltage and current requirements. It is strongly recommended that external power sources are limited to standard USB power, however, we will consider other designs.

d) All additional components must be “plug & play” – additional points will be awarded for designs that do not require post-processing (such as soldering or conductive epoxy). The maximum budget for additional components is $20 (the submission must include a Bill of Materials showing the source of supply, order page URL, and cost). Please list the type and number of components required and their values, such as LEDs, capacitors, resistors, microcontrollers, etc. We will need some information as to the placement of each component such as a circuit diagram. It is best practice to simply mark the component positions on the print.

e) If using some type of microcontroller, please have mercy on our poor overworked engineers and keep it simple! It's always a challenge to implement someone else’s design. We recommend anything Arduino compatible in programming, and an Attiny85 or some similar microcontroller for simplicity and compatibility. You will email the code so that we can upload it to the microcontroller. We will consider other designs as well. All designs and components should be open source.

f) We will not stop mid-print to add components. If your design requires multiple prints and/or attaching one print to another, we will need specifics. Please remember; one of the scoring criteria is simplicity and elegance, however, we want to see your awesome ideas!

g) The final product must operate directly from the print bed once the battery is installed.

h) The print file must be in the following format – .STL

6) SUBMISSION DEADLINE

The submission must be provided to KUPROS Inc by midnight on 14 August 2022.

Shortlisted finalists will be selected by August 19, 2022.

Prototypes will be printed by September 2, 2022.

Online voting will commence on September 4, 2022, and complete on 16 September 2022.

The winners will be announced on 20 September 20, 2022.

7) TERMS & CONDITIONS

The submitter has ownership of, or the rights to, the idea preceding their submission of the idea to the competition.

The submitter gives KUPROS Inc full rights to use the final product, and video recordings thereof, for marketing purposes.

The submitter will join the KUPROS collaboration platform and provide an overview of their design.

The final printed product, and any partial prints used for process optimization, shall become the property of KUPROS Inc for demonstration and marketing purposes.

On request, a duplicate print will be provided to all shortlisted finalists.

Shortlisted finalists agree to participate in online marketing presentations such as Facebook Live, Zoom meetings, and social media posts.