Robot Barman: Honorary Mention at the electronica Fast Forward contest

An honorary mention has been awarded to Cocktail Joe, an affable robotic barman with a light show, at the electronica Fast Forward contest. All through 2018, startup enterprises created by brilliant electronic engineers, have strived in the hope of winning their share of a €150,000 total prize pool. Congratulations to all the finalists, whom you can see in this video of the awards ceremony at Munich.

In an interview with Jan Buiting, Eben Upton explains: “If you can make a device that will withstand a child’s bedroom, it will certainly withstand a factory!” […]. When those who have bought their first RPi for their own edification, at home, then taking it into their professional lives, they have to explain to their colleagues that this board, seen as a toy, is more reliable than a lot of devices that claim to be industrial.”

Two weeks ago, when reporting about the winners of the Fast Forward competition powered by Elektor during the electronica 2016 trade show, we were limited to naming and summarizing their projects. Let's proceed now by showing the presentations given by the nominees before the Jury and the audience at the Fast Forward booth in Munich. ​

Jan Buiting from Elektor TV bombarded Lucio Di Jasio, Business Development Manager at Microchip. with questions rephrasing some of your major concerns after Microchip took over Atmel: "What is happening with PIC and AVR, with MIPS and ARM, with MPLABX and Atmel Studio7? Is Microchip going to drop my favourite support platform? Will they force us to choose or can we remain confident that the stuff we are used to remains available?