xwhatsit's beam spring USB controller • No one managed to crack this problem, until xwhatsit's amazing project. Moreover, he released all his research under an open source license.
Soarer's new controller firmware • The winner of last year's award makes another strong appearance with his easy to configure USB keyboard controller firmware for microcontrollers such as the Teensy 2.0 and Teensy++ 2.0.
matt3o for various builds and tutorials • Matt3o crashed into the scene with all kinds of builds and tutorials, such as the Brownfox, a guide to how to build a custom keyboard and his laser cut prototyping project.
Komar for his work on the GH60 • The GH60 programmable keyboard started as an idea by jdcarpe at geekhack, resulting in this fantastic, open source implementation by Komar.
hasu's TMK firmware • Hasu helped a lot of people with his source code repository of keyboard & converter firmware. It can drive various keyboards and protocols and supports multi-layers and USB NKRO.
And the Wingnut for Best input device mod 2013, as voted for by the members of deskthority, goes to...
Spoiler: