Rules & Guidelines

General Rules

Participants must meet all eligibility requirements (see Eligibility).
Teams may consist of up to 3 members or compete individually.
All team members are required to register in order to compete.
All work submitted must be original and created by the participant(s).
Use of AI writing or content-generation tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, image generators) for creating ideas, designs, or documentation is strictly prohibited and will result in immediate disqualification.
Plagiarism or copying another team’s idea will result in disqualification.
Late submissions or registrations will not be accepted under any circumstances.

The competition follows the engineering design process:

Identify Problem: Clearly define the challenge, understand the requirements and constrains.
Research: Gather relevant information by analyzing resources, exploring different approaches, and searching online or elsewhere to better understand the problem and find ideas that can help you design a solution
Brainstorm: Generate a wide range of creative ideas without judgment to ensure a wide range of possible solutions.
Solution Development: Select the most promising ideas and begin developing a couple of designs.
Final Design: Refine and complete the most promising idea chosen based on the design's ability to meet the problem requirements and solve the challenge effectively.
Evaluation: Review your final design to ensure it meets the competition’s requirements and success criteria. Reflect on how well your design solves the problem and be prepared to explain your design choices clearly.

Show respect to all participants, judges, and organizers.
Collaboration is encouraged within teams but cross-team sharing of work is not allowed.
Zero tolerance for plagiarism or academic dishonesty.
Follow all communication and submission guidelines provided by organizers.

Documentation portfolio will be evaluated based on:

The poster will be evaluated based on:

Submission Deadline: August 1st, 2026 (8/1/26) by 11:59 PM ET (Eastern Time)
Select only ONE team member to complete the submission. Other members do not need to submit separately.
Required Submission Files:
- Documentation Portfolio (multi-page PDF file)
- Poster (one-page PDF file)
File Size Limit: Maximum 1 GB per upload
All files must be uploaded through the official submission portal.
- Submissions sent via email or any other method will NOT be accepted or judged.