'VDE Best Thesis Award' for ZEReader Thesis
- Anna-Lena Marx
- July 30, 2026
- Zereader , Electronics
Almost exactly one year after submitting my bachelor’s thesis in electrical engineering – which resulted in the ZEReader Project – I had the chance to meet one of my supervisors again and showcase how much the project has evolved since its initial version.
In mid-June, I received an email that my thesis would be awarded the ‘VDE Award’ for outstanding theses of the regional VDE association Leipzig/Halle, which my university belongs to. It was not completely unexpected, as my supervisors had told me after the final thesis defense that they would nominate my work. Still, living in Karlsruhe meant that attending a Thursday award ceremony in Leipzig on such short notice was quite a logistical challenge.
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The ZEReader Project - Adopting Agile and Software-First Methods in Open Hardware
- Anna-Lena Marx
- May 24, 2026
- Zereader , Electronics , Embedded , Conferences
The ZEReader project is an open-source E-Reader that originated as an electrical engineering thesis. As a hobbyist project, it faces the typical rigidity of hardware iteration. To manage this, I applied an agile, software-first methodology, leveraging my background as an embedded systems developer. Instead of writing drivers for fixed hardware, I utilized the Zephyr driver ecosystem to let software requirements define component choices. This inverted approach enabled rapid proof-of-concept testing before committing to physical designs.
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A Gentle Power Off for ZEReader: Replacing the Hard Switch with a Latching Power Circuit
- Anna-Lena Marx
- November 16, 2025
- Zereader , Electronics , Embedded
With the second revision, the way ZEReader is turned on and off got a massive redesign.
The hard on/off switch in the first revision was dead simple and worked great—with one big flaw from a user’s perspective. You could not recognize if the reader was on or off on the first sight. The old switch just closed or opened the loop with the power supply, and due to the E-Paper display just holding the state, you had no chance to tell.
Besides, there was no possibility at all to implement some kind of graceful shutdown mechanism, which would allow me to save all important state information and show a clear device off indicator.
This situation was totally fine for the very first prototype, but it started to get annoying very soon. A new approach was needed!