Lutron Lighting Innovation Competition

2025 Competition Winners

  • 1st Place – Minecraft Redstone: In Real Life!: Nick Gerasev, Nick Lin, Ezan Khan, and Harrison Che
  • 2nd Place – LumiBrella: Esther Xu, Zitong He, and Zhenglin Wang
  • 3rd Place – My Last Two Brain Cells: Julie Bui, Henry Corrigan, and Anna Tretiakova
  • Best-in-Class: First-Years – Soundscape: Dillon Smith and Layton Sahler
  • Best-in-Class: Sophomores – Dragon Eye: Madeline Malloy and Desiree Morales
  • Best-in-Class: Upperclass – Birthday Cake 3000: Alexa Kyriacou, Kayla Tracey, Sarah Alizadeh, and Cemre Sonmez

First Place – Minecraft Redstone: In Real Life!:

3 of the students with their project, a physical minecraft lamp and piston controlled by a light up torch 3 of the students from the minecraft team with their project and 1st place medals 3 of the minecraft lamp team members with the lutron judges and their 1st place medals

Second Place – Lumibrella:

the umbrella team demonstrating the heat opening by aiming a heat gun at the tip of the umbrella the umbrella team with their project and their 2nd place medals the umbrella team with the lutron judges and their 2nd place medals

Third Place – My Last Two Brain Cells:

2 students pointing at their neuron shaped project that lights up based on sound input the 3 students who made the neuron project with their medals and their project the 3 students who made the brain cell project with the lutron judges and their 3rd place medals

Best-in-Class: First Years – Soundscape:

team behind the light up sound bar showing off their project to the lutron judges and CDO staff team behind the light up sound bar with their project and best first year winner certificate students behind the soundbar with the lutron judges and their best first year project certificate

Best-in-Class: Sophomores – Dragon Eye:

wide group shot showing the 2 students showing off their dragon shaped proejctor to the lutron judges while more competition activity happens behind them 2 students with their project of a dragon shaped projector with their best sophomore project certificate the 2 students behind the dragon projector project with the lutron judges and their best sophomore project certificate

Best-in-Class: Upperclass – Birthday Cake 3000:

4 students who made the birthday cake with their winner certificate 4 students who made the birthday cake project 4 students who made the birthday cake pictured with the Lutron judges and holding a Best Upper Class Project certificate

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2025 Competition!

2 students showing off their diorama to the camera 2 of the students on the team and their project, a motion sensor walking boot cover that lights up red when the injured foot touches the ground student demonstrates his muscle reactive lights by flexing his arm to turn on an LED student showing off black box, which when opened shows a UV phone sterilizer student pointing out details of light up windmill project to lutron judges crowd shot showing multiple groups presenting their projects to judges, CDO staff, and fellow students

Kickoff Event:

large group of students clustered around long tables in SILab large group of students clustered around long tables listening to presentation by Kevin from the ENG CDO 6 male ENG students grouped up and smiling while chatting

Workshop:

students across several tables watching a presentation from a Lutron Lighting rep Students clustered closer together in a dark room to watch a lighting color demo group of students in the foreground discussing ideas and working with electronic components in the foreground, in the background another group is discussing technology with the Lutron rep 5 students in a group discussing project ideas students across several tables in a dark room watching a Lutron lightbulb technology demo

Competition Guidelines:

Have fun and make the light shine with your imagination!

Lutron Electronics, the College of Engineering Office of Career Development, and SILab will sponsor this event imagined by former SILab Advisor, Noah Abbott, who now works at Lutron.

Entrants will form teams of one to four, at least one must be a College of Engineering student. Each team must design and construct their coolest, most innovative lighting design project. Projects will be judged on: Creativity and Originality, Engineering Sophistication, and Aesthetic Appeal. Any combination of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering will prove useful toward these categories. Projects may (but need not) include complex mechanical design, circuitry, or microcontroller programming to produce a final project of these qualities. Requirements for amount of light produced, application of product, or overall purpose are intentionally left ambiguous to allow for a wide spectrum of resulting projects.

Key Dates 2025:

Kickoff Event: Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, 5:30-6:30 pm, SILab

Workshop: Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, 4 pm, SILab

Competition and Prizes: Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, 12-2 pm, SILab

You can participate or watch!

Sign Up Information:

Sign up for the Kickoff on Handshake

To sign up your team and enter the competition, click here

Supply order form

Final Project Submission (only 1 member of your team needs to submit the project)

Each team will have a budget of $50 when the order is placed through SILab and the order request form. Unused supplies with be returned to SILab. Each team will need to request an order for what they need for their project and must decide on one person who will place the order requests for your team. You should look at Amazon for your parts. BU has a special account with them to make orders easier and faster. Other places may have delays and problems. Any questions, please contact silab@bu.edu. Good Luck!

Competition Prizes:

  • 1st Place – $300
  • 2nd Place – $150
  • 3rd Place – $75

See Photos from Past Lutron Competitions:

2024 – Color of Music
2023 – Write-A-Light
2022 – Jellyfish Lamp
2020 – Inside Out

    Click here to return to the SILab Home Page

    Click here to return to the SILab Competitions Main Page