Digi Announces First Quarter Winners of its Green Design Competition

Contestants develop intelligent home automation system using new iDigi wireless development kit

MINNETONKA, Minn. - Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) today announced that Danish Shrestha, a senior computer sciences student at Winona State University, and Andrew Popp, a recent computer sciences graduate from Winona State University, have been awarded $1,500 as the first quarter winners of Digi’s green design contest. The pair used iDigi wireless development kits to develop an intelligent home automation system that anticipates human activity, and monitors temperature, light and motion sensors. The system uses this information to determine energy saving actions such as automatically opening and closing room vents.

“We came up with the home automation concept and saw a lot of potential with the iDigi platform,” Popp said. “One of the best things about the iDigi platform is that someone without many resources can do something great. iDigi was the heart of our project and made it so much easier because we did not have to deal with the low-level stuff. Digi provided the hardware, software and services to tie everything together. We greatly look forward to improving our entry for quarter two.”

“Our goal was to create a fully automated system that saves energy, and is low cost and easy to set up,” added Shrestha. “The contest was fun and the iDigi kit extremely easy to use. I really liked the discovery applet where you hit one button and the iDigi service discovers all the devices. I also liked that it features SCI commands that provide access to the gateway from anywhere in the world. Being able to run python code was also very helpful.”

Optimized for green applications, iDigi development kits include the hardware, hosted software and services necessary to easily develop sustainable applications. With more than $20,000 in total prize money, contestants are required to use one of three new iDigi wireless development kits. Contest categories include energy saving for electrical consumption, energy saving for water consumption, energy saving for natural gas or fuel consumption, and eliminating or monitoring air pollution.

Kicked off at ESC Silicon Valley 2009, the green design contest runs March 30, 2009 through Feb. 28, 2010. Grand prize winners will be announced at ESC Silicon Valley 2010. Four quarterly prizes of $1,500 will be awarded leading up to ESC 2010. Grand prize amounts include $7,500 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $2,500 for third place. Overall winners will be selected from the complete pool of submissions, and previous quarterly winners will not be excluded. Contestants can also resubmit the same design with improvements over the course of the competition.

“We had numerous outstanding entries, and it was hard to pick just one winner,” said Joel Young, CTO and senior vice president of research and development, Digi International. “However, Andrew and Danish developed a system that scored highly within every aspect of our judging criteria. Their submission was innovative, demonstrated a strong green impact and was well thought out and presented. We are looking forward to seeing what they and others come up with throughout the contest.”

Contestants are required to use one of the following iDigi development kits: iDigi™ X4 Starter Kit ZB, iDigi™ Wi-9P Starter Kit ZB or iDigi™ BLS4100 Add-on Kit ZB. Kits are available for a reduced price of $149 for engineers and $75 for students with valid student identification. Prices may vary by region. Contestants are not required to use Digi components exclusively for a design.

For contest details and submission guidelines, visit www.digigreen.com.

About Digi International
Digi International is making wireless M2M easy by developing reliable products and solutions to connect and securely manage local or remote electronic devices over the network or via the Web. Digi offers the highest levels of performance, flexibility and quality, and markets its products through a global network of distributors and resellers, systems integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For more information, visit Digi’s Web site at www.digi.com, or call 877-912-3444.