IEEE Rising Stars

IEEE Rising Stars 2026

The completed January 2-4, 2026 IEEE engineering-and-technology conference at the Luxor in Las Vegas. Its official post-event badge page documents a 2026 badge project: all attendees received a bare, unpopulated PCB, while approximately five manually assembled advanced units were prototyped. The source makes the attendee-versus-prototype split explicit and does not support a claim that all attendees received a working electronic badge.

Luxor Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada · United States · 2026

IEEE Rising Stars 2026 Conference Badge Project

IEEE Rising Stars' official post-event Badge Project page says every 2026 attendee received a bare PCB with no components, while only about five manually assembled advanced badges were prototyped. A separate pre-event SEAL-Embedded source snapshot documents a Raspberry Pi Pico W BLE networking-badge development track, but neither source identifies it as one of those five units. The record therefore keeps the all-attendee bare-PCB and limited-prototype claims separate and does not treat a public development branch as a universal working badge.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

assembly documentation

Advanced manual-assembly workflow

The project page describes an automated-assembly-oriented design and manual population using solder paste, a stencil, reflow, manual pick-and-place, and post-assembly rework, with exposed-pad and 0.5 mm fine-pitch assembly constraints.

Compatibility: Project-design guidance only; it is not a verified assembly instruction, safety certification, yield report, production workflow, or support commitment for every builder.

conference badge format

All-attendee bare PCB allocation

The official Badge Project page says every 2026 attendee received a bare PCB with no components.

Compatibility: IEEE Rising Stars 2026 attendee artifact only; the source explicitly does not establish a populated, powered, programmed, or functional electronic badge for every recipient.

limited prototype batch

Approximately five hand-assembled advanced prototypes

The organizer's post-event account says only about five manually assembled advanced badges were prototyped after the planned automated-assembly path did not result in a fully assembled badge for every attendee.

Compatibility: IEEE Rising Stars 2026 advanced prototype subset; no recipient roster, exact count, final configuration, or attendee-wide distribution is established.

IEEE Rising Stars 2026 Conference Badge Project pre-event source snapshot; event deployment unverified

pre-event public firmware-development source

SEAL BLE interest-matching development source

A December 13 SEAL-Embedded snapshot frames a Raspberry Pi Pico W BLE interest-matching project as an IEEE Rising Stars Conference badge and includes `aioble` advertising/scanning code. A later repository README describes an ESP32 redesign, not an event-unit release.

Compatibility: Development-source context only. The official Badge Project page neither links this repository nor assigns its Pico W or ESP32 branches to the five advanced prototypes, any bare attendee PCB, or a completed event deployment.

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

2025-to-2026 badge boundary · official historical context · distinct years and allocation models documented

The 2026 page describes the 2025 basic and advanced badge runs as background before explaining that the 2026 effort targeted a new advanced design. It does not establish that 2025 hardware, parts, firmware, cost, units, or features carried into the 2026 bare-PCB attendee artifacts or the five advanced prototypes.

The record uses the historical account for lineage context only and does not transfer prior-year specifications into the 2026 entry.

SEAL development-source linkage boundary · self-described public project source plus unlinked organizer record · pre-event source exists; physical-prototype assignment unverified

SEAL-Embedded's immutable December 13, 2025 snapshot describes an IEEE Rising Stars Conference Raspberry Pi Pico W BLE networking-badge development track, while its July 2026 README describes a newer ESP32-WROOM-32 iteration. The official 2026 Badge Project page neither names SEAL nor links the repository, and it identifies only approximately five advanced prototypes without their hardware or firmware configurations.

The public source is available as a separately scoped development trail, but this record does not assign its Pico W code, later ESP32 code, BLE behavior, components, or authorship to a specific physical 2026 prototype or all-attendee bare PCB.

attendee allocation and configuration boundary · official post-event report · bare-PCB attendee allocation and limited advanced prototypes documented

The official page explicitly says all attendees received bare PCBs with no components and that only about five advanced badges were manually assembled. It does not publish an attendee count, recipient list, exact prototype count, handoff record, populated-board inventory, substitute-kit record, or proof that every participant received or operated a finished electronic device.

The catalogue keeps the universal bare PCB and limited populated-prototype claims separate instead of presenting the five advanced units as the standard attendee badge.

firmware and technical archive gap · official project page · schematic/BOM links visible; organizer-linked code publication remains incomplete

The official page links a schematic PDF and BOM but leaves design description and code publication as TODO items, while only noting that CircuitPython was used for a prototype. A separately published SEAL-Embedded development archive is retained in this record, but it is not linked from the organizer page or assigned to the 2026 prototypes. No organizer-linked, event-unit-matched firmware release, binary, flashing process, software license, full component inventory, board revision, power specification, manufacturing package, test plan, or errata archive was recovered.

The dossier distinguishes an accessible development-source trail from a complete reproducible event-unit release.

manual assembly complexity caveat · official badge-design note · advanced manual builds described as challenging

The Badge Project page says the design was optimized for automated assembly and warns that manual population involves surface-mount, exposed-pad, and 0.5 mm fine-pitch work. It reports solder-paste, stencil, reflow, manual pick-and-place, and rework use, while warning prospective builders of a high chance the design might not work without suitable skills and tools.

The catalogue preserves the primary assembly warning without presenting the project as beginner-friendly, reliably hand-buildable, safe to assemble, or proven across a finished production run.

missing rights-cleared image · policy decision · open

No IEEE Rising Stars 2026 badge image is published locally because the official Badge Project page's rendered badge and assembly media do not pair a selected photo or raster with a reusable license or explicit permission basis, attribution, source URL, and processing record.

The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying official page images, schematic screenshots, social posts, conference media, or generated approximations.

Resources

Sources