Sustain the System 2026: Nordic Semiconductor contest with an $8,000 prize pool
Nordic Semiconductor is giving away $8,000 for predictive monitoring projects built on the nRF54LM20 DK. Submissions close 23 April 2027.
Sustain the System is a hardware contest run by Nordic Semiconductor on Hackster.io. Entrants use the nRF54LM20 DK and Bluetooth to build a predictive monitoring system that spots degradation before it turns into failure, waste or replacement.
The total prize pool is $8,000 across six projects. The Best Sustain the System Solution is worth $3,000. Four more awards are worth $1,000 each: Best Edge AI Implementation, Best Industrial Solution, Best Infrastructure Project and Best Natural Resource Solution.
Ideas suggested by the organiser include bearing wear detection, pump health monitoring, HVAC predictive maintenance, building energy monitoring, smart irrigation and water resource monitoring. Nordic asks that a project collect useful data from the physical world, watch for critical conditions, alert people and suggest what to do next.
The competition began on 15 September 2026. Applications for free hardware close on 25 October 2026 and hardware recipients are announced on 20 November 2026. Submissions close on 23 April 2027 at 5:00 PM PDT and winners are announced by 21 May 2027.
The nRF54LM20 DK is the development kit for the nRF54LM20A and nRF54LM20B chips. It gives access to Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Channel Sounding, Matter, Thread, Zigbee and Aliro, and the nRF54LM20B carries an integrated Axon NPU that can run machine learning models on the device.