What is the SE 2019 Innovation Contest?
Any student chapter (in SE region) can submit one entry to the regional competition
- One entry per chapter
- Submission may be by an individual or university team.
The student chapter submission must fall under one of the Global Competition Topics:
- 2019 Topics for submission are: (see here for more detail)
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Sustainable Engineering
- Next Generation Transportation
- Improvements in Clean Water
- New Construction Materials & Methodology
- Students may elect to also enter their submission into a Special Entrepreneurial Award category.
The submission consists of the following:
(see Submission Tips below for more detail)- Poster follows the information needed for the Global Competition submission “A good submittal”
- The poster maximum size if 48" wide by 36" tall
- Basic applicant information and summary paragraph (300 word limit) summarizing your innovation
Student submissions will consist of a Poster to display at the regional event and an online application including the poster in PDF format. The online application deadline is midnight March 20, 2019.
- The online application is an executive summary of the innovation with the ability to upload a PDF of the poster
- For assistance with submissions, see section below.
The judges will evaluate the online application summary and poster PDF.
The judges will walk by all posters and evaluate them for how well they convey its innovative attributes.
The judges will meet students at their Poster table where the student(s) will pitch their innovations to the judges (no more than 5 minutes) and answer up to 5 minutes of questions.
The pre-conference submission of the summary and the Poster, and then Poster Pitch at the event will be scored worth a total of 80 points. The points distribution is as follows:
- 50 points to preconference submission of uploaded poster PDF and exec sum form. The submitting team has months to prepare and has the luxury of coaching AND submission feedback. The bulk of the first round score is here.
- 30 points for the poster pitch to judges so the judges can see how well students know their information, see how prepared they are, see how they respond to probing questions, etc
The finalists invited to the next round and the Shark Tank Pitches will be the top ten applicants with the highest blended scores. In addition to the 80 possible points from the first round:
- Up to an additional 20 points can be award for the Shark Tank pitches.
- These finalists present to the sharks live at the Regional event.
- Presentations will be 5 minutes or less and may include followup questions and answers with the sharks of another five minutes.
- Presentation will qualify for chapter requirement to give presentation to be in good standing. (Mead paper continues to be an option).
Scoring criteria for the student Innovation Contest follows the ASCE Global Innovation Contest scoring criteria weighting with 40% of score for how innovative the submission, 30% for how important to society/customer, and finally 30% to how technically feasible is the submission (for detail see here).
The three teams with the highest judges scores will bin invited to the Global Innovation Contest June 26-27, 2019 where the six finalists from the two regions will present to national judges who will crown a student Innovation Contest champion.
- Our Entrepreneur on Demand Roger London (LinkedIn page), hosted instructive webinars in December and January for all students considering participation in the Student Innovation Contest. The webinars describe the timelines and process, explain in more detail the judging criteria and what makes a good submission, and provide answers to any anonymous questions from webinar participants.
- Private team coaching/mentoring will be available with Mr. London on a first come first serve basis. Student applicants will be able to speak privately about their innovation and get feedback on how and what to describe it. Mr. London will be available for one private call and multiple email exchanges.
- If student applicants submit by the Early submission deadline of March 14, 2019, Mr. London will review the submission from a judge’s perspective and provide written feedback and comments indicating which areas might be confusing, missing, need to be described further, etc. Student can then update their submission before the final submission deadline of midnight March 20, 2019.
- The Application form asks basic identifying information and up to 300 words to summarize the uploaded poster PDF.
- Its much easier to draft your submission in a WORD or similar application which is much easier to edit, organize and word count. When you finish, just cut and paste it into the fields on the application. Don’t worry about formatting or making it pretty, we are only concerned with the content.