The Internet of Things will be built on open source software and open standards. At Eclipse we are developing a community of IoT projects that make it easy for developers to build IoT solutions.

The Open IoT Challenge is your chance to demonstrate what you can build for the Internet of Things using open standards and open source technology. Best of all, you can compete for over $20,000 in prizes, and recognition for your solution.

Technology Involved


We believe the IoT will be based on open standards and open source technology so this challenge to highlight current open standards and open source solutions. Developers who participate in the challenge are encouraged to build their solutions using any or all of the following technologies:

IoT open standards,
ex MQTT, CoAP, or LWM2M



LocationTech, OSGeo, or any other FOSS4G open
source projects



Other open source projects, including
other Eclipse projects


Tell Us How You Build It

A key aspect of this challenge is we want participants to document and discuss their experiences of building their IoT solution. For example, participants are encouraged to blog about setting up hardware like Raspberry Pi, establishing topics for MQTT messages, architecture decisions for their IoT solutions, etc.

Applications for the developer challenge are now closed.

10 lucky challengers have received a $150 gift card to help buy the hardware parts needed for the solution, and there are 45 projects in total who entered the competition!

Submissions of the final solution must be completed by February 27, 2015. Ten finalists will be selected to present their solution at EclipseCon 2015 or online via a webinar. Prizes will be awarded for the top 3 solutions.

The solutions will be judged on the following criteria:

  • Innovation of the solution and applicability to the application domain
  • Completeness of solution
  • Use of open standards and open source technology
  • Amount of community discussion from the participant when they built their solution

Contest Rules

  • The challenge is open to any individual aged 18 years or older
  • The solution submitted by the applicants must be a new solution created for this challenge
  • More than one individual can participate in creating a solution but any prize will be awarded to the key contact who completed the entry form

Contest Prizes


The three winners will be awarded with the following prizes, allowing them to continue to innovate and build other IoT projects

1st prize

2nd prize

3rd prize