TEI2011: Calling all Superheros to the Design Challenge

The world could always use a new Superhero and 12 teams (see team list and superhero name and powers at: http://www.tei-conf.org/11/participation_/design-challenge/)  rose to the task to design costumes and superhero tools at the Fifth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction in Portugal.

Three teams walked away the winners of $1,000 each:

Category of inventiveness:  superhero Captain Chronomek from the Simon Fraser University team (whose first superhero battle was with the Portuguese airport security for two days)
Superhero Description: Once a humble industrial-revolution machinist, Skip Sprocket was transformed into Captain Chronomek: the Continuum’s top Post-Victorian-Pre-Singularity agent. A flying, time-traveling MacGyver, Captain Chronomek hacks the timeline with the technology of the past to prevent a dark future.
Team members: Joshua Tanenbaum, Karen Tanenbaum and Allen Bevans.
See more on Captain Chronomek at: http://www.siat.sfu.ca/news/2011/535/

Category quality of execution: superhero Axon from the Technical University Eindhoven team. (Axon used only one LilyPad Arduino to run the 260 LEDs and 52 reed switches which consequentially required them to include 7 input and 7 output shift registers.)
Superhero Description: With his body being an endless source of energy, Axon defeats his enemies by collecting, directing and releasing that energy through a strong blast that wipes away everything on it’s path.
Team members: Jacquelyn van Kampen, Joost Aanen, Marianne Akker and Koen Beljaars
See more on Axon at: http://www.fashioningtech.com/profiles/blogs/super-hero-design-challenge  and
http://dvice.com/archives/2011/02/homebrew-superh.php

Category for presentation and style: superhero Godmode from Bauhaus University Weimar team
 Superhero Description: The results achieved were the consequence of invention pure and simple.
Team members: Daniel Wessolek, Jamie L. Ferguson and Jörg Brinkmann

To watch a video with all 12 of the Superheros in action visit: http://vimeo.com/19781019

Congratulations to all twelve teams!