K-12 Education and Outreach - Take AIM Competition

2026 Take AIM Competition

Analytics, Innovation and Mathematics (AIM) Online Competition for High School Students

Competition Sponsor: INFORMS Education Outreach Committee K-12

🚀 Overview 🚀

This online competition invites high school students and educators to participate in an exciting and challenging optimization game. The mission of our sponsor is to enhance student engagement and bring in awareness for operations research and mathematics, with the goal of motivating students' future participation in analytical problem-solving practice.

PLEASE NOTE: The 2026 Take AIM Competition is also open to students attending U.S. middle or junior high schools (Grades 6-8) who are taking or have completed high school and above mathematics courses (courses beyond Algebra). Such students should have their advisors (school email required) contact the Take AIM organizers (IndustrialEngOutreach@gmail.com) to obtain permission to participate.

A Guide to the competition could be found in this site (link coming soon). All the team members should read the guide for detailed instructions.

📅 Key Dates 📅

Until Sept 25: Self-learning through online game practice
Sep 20: Team registration deadline
Sep 26 2:00-3:00 pm EST: Competition Stage
Oct 10 2:00-3:00 pm EST: Presentation Stage
Oct 17: Winners Announced and Prizes distributed

🎓 Who Can Enter? 🎓

U.S. High School Students with an educator or teacher advisor (school email required). Recommended size is up to 4 students per team.

🎮🕹️ Competition Stage 🕹️🎮

Online Game: BikeSmart Challenge by ISEArcade
Details: Participate in a hosted tournament using Championship Mode on the online game and submit your results within a specified time frame while trying to get the highest score.
Criteria for Stage Winners:
- Score: Highest score in Championship Mode tournament.
- Time: Play game for an hour and complete all rounds to submit the final score (Sep 26 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern time).

📽️💻 Presentation Stage 💻📽️

Presentation: Present on lessons learned and how you got to optimal solutions during competition stage.
Details: Based on winners from the competition stage, finalists will present on their findings, lessons learned, and strategy to a panel of judges who will select the winners of the overall competition. Upload your presentation files here no later than October 7.
Criteria for Final Winners:
- - Insights: Presentation content should articulate comprehension of mathematical, operations research, or system design principles used in the strategy of playing the game.
  - Content: Evaluated on clarity, presentation skills, and delivery and participation of team.
  - Copyright: Presentations must be original work only, no copyrighted or third-party materials (including no use of generative AI).
  - Design: Visually engaging and creative - reduce text and highlight visuals.

🏆 Awards & Recognition 🏆

🥇 1st Place: $2,000 + Certificate

🥈 2nd Place: $1,000 + Certificate

🥉 3rd Place: $500+ Certificate

Select winners and associated presentations will be featured on our K-12 Committee website to support learning and STEM outreach.

📅 Registration 📅

Deadline: Sep 20, 2026

Link to Register Team

📩 Organizers & Contact 📩

Tuba Ketenci, Neil Desnoyers, Ana Muriel, and Paola Furlanetto

📝 Presentation Submission Form 📝

The presentation submission form is available here.

📚 References 📚

Competition Guide (with all information for registering your team, participating, and rubrics): Competition Guide.

BikeSmart Game - Guide for Playing (link coming soon).

BikeSmart Game - Slides for Walk-through of Game (link coming soon).

❓ Frequently Asked Questions ❓

What do I need to do to register my team?

First, sign up using our form to register your team for the overall competition here: Link to Register Team.
Second, follow this guide to sign up and use a ISEArcade account for your team: Competition Guide (link coming soon).

Is this meant for integrating within a class or an after-school club?

We encourage either method, whatever makes most sense for your team. The only time requirement is to attend the session for the competition on Sep 26 2-3pm EST and if selected as a finalist, attend the session for the presentation stage on Oct 10 2-3pm EST.

Can there be more than one team per school?

There can be any number of teams per high school. No limit. All need to register so we make sure we have enough bandwidth. We encourage participation among as many students as possible.
An advisor/educator or teacher may be the point of contact or verification for multiple teams. The only requirement is to have an email linked to the high school so that we can make sure the teams are made up of high school students from a US high school.

Do all members of a team need to be students enrolled in the same high school?
- No, but all team members must be students enrolled in a U.S. high school. Advisors are responsible for registering their teams, thereby certifying their eligibility as U.S. high school students.
Do advisors need to be logged in during the Competition Stage (Saturday, Sep 26th 2:00-3:00 PM EST) and the Presentation Stage (Saturday, Oct 10th 2:00-3:00 PM EST)?
- Suggested but not required. The advisor role involves providing guidance to teams as they prepare for the competition.
How many students per team?

We recommend size of 4 students per team due to the gameplay of the BikeSmart game used in this competition. While more students can be involved, there are limited actions they will all be able to take during the BikeSmart competition hour and it may be harder to coordinate among larger groups.

Do all team members have to be physically in the same location for the Competition Stage and the Presentation Stage?
- No. On the day of the competition, students will log in to the game remotely and their teams can be either physically in the same room or communicate virtually as they enter their decisions. We recommend that each team only log into the BikeSmart Game on one device (for the Competition Stage), with one teammember charged with entering the team's decisions.

Have questions? We’ve got answers! at IndustrialEngOutreach@gmail.com

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