Welcome to round 1 of voting in Design News and Allied Electronics annual Gadget Freak of the Year contest!

Every two weeks for the next eight weeks, we will present four or five Gadget Freak projects that ran in Design News over the past year. They are all great, so you have a tough task -- you have to choose the best one.

Watch the following five videos (and check out the related project) and then cast your vote. In two weeks, we will present five more projects for you to vote on, eventually crowning a winner.

After four rounds of voting, we'll take the winners from each round and present them in a final showdown. The winner will become Gadget Freak of the Year, and will win a check for $6,000. Two runners-up will be awarded $2,000 each.

Round 1:

Gadget Freak Case #250: DIY Flexible Display