LONDON — Pedro Rodrigues from Portugal has won $50,000 first prize in the second annual Electronic Design for the Global Environment challenge organized by component distributor Premier Farnell plc.

Rodrigues winning entry is a standby energy saver; a system that automatically detects the standby mode of electrical equipment and disconnects the power when it is not required.

"The idea of using a neural network algorithm to accomplish Mr. Rodrigues' energy saving design is original and clearly more efficient than conventional energy savings methods," said Sir Peter Gershon, chairman of Premier Farnell and Live EDGE judge.

Rodrigues' prize includes $25,000 in cash and support services valued at an additional $25,000 from experts in the fields of design consultancy, marketing, legal and commerce to drive the design towards production.

Rodrigues said the design uses an artificial intelligence algorithm implemented on a high-end microcontroller. "The device has sensors that detect changes in the environment and intelligently restore power, when required."

John Tillson from England won $5,000 for his entry, a controller designed to switch off critical loads during supply/demand imbalances, easing the burden on national power grids at times of peak demand. The second highly commended $5,000 winner is Antonio Lalguna from Spain for his design of an automatic irrigation system to improve photovoltaic systems. This device is aimed at improving the efficiency of solar panels by 30 percent, using a rainwater harvesting system to automatically clean and cool off the panels.

"Our congratulations go out to Pedro, John and Antonio. We truly look forward to helping Pedro register his design and supporting him to take the unit from prototype to production in the coming year," said Harriet Green, CEO of Premier Farnell, in a statement.

The 2007 winner, John Noble has already taken his design through to completion and anticipates having the product ready for distribution later this year. For more information on his energy saving product visit: www.haikufan.com.

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