Triangle Startup Weekend launched with a new flair on Friday: “Maker.”

Prior Triangle Startup Weekends have prioritized software development, but this year, organizers wanted to capitalize on a growing community of design enthusiasts: the maker community.

The 54-hour entrepreneurial sprint event kicked off on Friday evening at HQ Raleigh,s new headquarters in the Warehouse District with more than 35 would-be maker entrepreneurs pitching ideas to an audience that approached a hundred people.

“Maker Weekend is different than a traditional Triangle Startup Weekend,” said organizer Roshen Sethna, noting that “we get to play with 3-D printers and build physical prototypes.”

“Of course, it’s still a Startup Weekend,”Sethna added. True to that tradition, The event began with an open pitch contest, where any participant can pitch an idea in 60-seconds or less. 

Ideas ranged from a software-hardware combination for parents to keep their children on a digital leash to manufacturing sustainable, washable and reusable sticky grip tape for kettleballs.

The event attracted a wide and diverse group of participants.

Jake Marold, a 13-year-old, joined the “Babybirdsfeeding”  team to design a hardware attachment that birdwatchers (use technical term) could use to document, track and log which birds – and rare bird varieties – feed at feeders in their back yards.

“I’m excited to join this team,” said Marold, “but I’ll have to break the bad news to the lady that’s developing robotic blocks.”

Ben Watson, a computer science professor at North Carolina State University, encouraged his class (80 students) to attend the 54-hour long startup sprint. Eight took him up on the offer, four of whom pitched ideas at the outset. NC State covered the cost for the students to participate.

Two of Watson’s students, Tomer Shvueli and Chris Woodlief, were among the 10 finalists. Shvueli pitched a Bluetooth-enabled hardware device that would prevent earrings from going missing. Woodlief pitched one of the top vote-getting ideas, a Google Glass application that would pair with a wearable wrist device that monitored a user’s heart rate with Glass’ camera and location devices.

Woodlief quickly found supporters for his idea, connecting with electrical engineers and an actual Google Glass Explorer, Matthias Welsh. Bolstered by support of his classmates, Woodlief built a strong team and the group is already spitballing about how to market the product.

“Think about the first users,” said Welsh, describing the initial Glass consumers as adventurous, curious and exploratory. “They want to document and capture their lives,” said Welsh, “it’s about lifestyle.”

“The challenge will be building a hardware device that monitors heart rate,” said DeShawn Brown, also one of Watson’s NC State students, “and backing it up with software that automatically opens the camera on Glass at the right time.”

Mark Hiew joined the team that plans to develop a wearable device for children ages three through eight years old. The device will serve as a “wireless child leash,” said Brendan Andrade, who pitched the idea in what started as a bit of a joke.

The idea took off, however, as the community imagined the practicality of the concept, even if they’ll need to develop a marketable name.

“The hardware and software components shouldn’t be too difficult to develop with a suitable team,” said Hiew, “the real challenge will be figuring out how to make a device that a child will wear – could wear – without having it locked on them.”

Basically, over the next two days, the team worked  to make a device that kids will enjoy wearing – a device that makes them as cool as Google Glass Explorers or technologically-savvy amateur birders.

Companies pitched on Sunday evening in front of an established panel of judges from local design-focused companies including Aly Khalifa of Gamil Design, and Greg Hopper, a professor at Duke University and a strategist at NetApp, and Jonathan Gould, CTO of K4Connect (a new venture launched by entrepreneur F. Scott Moody).