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Contests for Students

The IEEE offers many opportunities for students to win contests for outstanding performance in a variety of areas. Students, here you will be able to search for opportunities to receive recognition and prizes for your innovative thinking and hard work.

Sponsors, here you can have the opportunity to recognize some of the best and brightest young engineering minds while taking the opportunity to reinforce your organization’s dedication to the support of the next generation of IEEE leaders.

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IEEE WIE Manga Story Contest 2023

Organizer:  IEEE Women in Engineering

Description: To bridge the gender gap and promote gender diversity, IEEE Women-in-Engineering (WIE) is organizing a story contest. The winners‘ stories will be plotted in the format of Manga comics, which will be socialized with the community through IEEE WIE Newsletter and website. The Manga plots will be available not only to the IEEE members, but also used as a tool to engage young generations particularly girls through IEEE WIE 1000+ Affinity Groups globally. The aim of the contest is to encourage the younger generation, particularly girls, to consider a career in STEM and work towards it. The story can be either fiction or non-fic

Eligibility: Please apply as an individual or as a group. At least one representative must be an IEEE member/IEEE student member.

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2023 ASME Heat Sink Design Competition

Description: For this competition, student will design, analyze and optimize an additively manufactured heat sink to cool a constant heat flux power electronics module subject to free convection. The student teams that are evaluated as having the most effective, unique designs will have an opportunity to test their designs using the additive manufacturing facilities at GE and state-of-the-art test equipment at Oregon State University. These student groups will also present their work at the 2023 ITherm Conference.

Eligibility: Teams of up to eight undergrad and graduate students.

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IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest

Organizer: IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S)

Description: Design and build reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. The top 6 teams will receive travel funds to attend the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium in Portland, Oregon, USA, July 23–28, 2023 to demonstrate their working systems. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be announced at the 2023 IEEE AP-S Awards Presentation at the conference and will receive cash awards of US $1,500, $750, and $250, respectively.

Eligibility: The team should consist of 2 to 5 students, with at least 50% being undergraduate students. For a 5-year Bachelor-cum- Master degree program, students in years 1 to 3 are considered undergraduates. Each team should be advised by one professional mentor who is a member of the IEEE AP-S, but the work needs to be done primarily by the students. No student or mentor should be involved in more than one team.

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Lance Stafford Larson Paper Contest

Organizer: IEEE Computer Society

Description: Encourages students to develop excellence in their communication skills and achievement in the field of computer science.

Eligibility: All IEEE student members. There will be one award for undergraduates and a second for graduate students

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IEEE Women in Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Award

Organizer: IEEE Women in Engineering

Description: The IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Awards are given annually to one IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group and one IEEE WIE Student Affinity Group that have shown outstanding leadership and initiative in organizing activities.

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IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group of the Year Award

Organizer: IEEE WIE

Description: The IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group of the Year Award is given annually to one IEEE WIE Affinity Group that has shown outstanding leadership and initiative in organizing activities. The award is based on programs that took place during the period of 1 January to 31 December of the preceding year.

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IEEE Women in Engineering Inspiring Student Member of the Year Award

Organizer: IEEE Women in Engineering

Description: The purpose of this award is to recognize an undergraduate/graduate student member of IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) who has overcome barriers to pursue engineering and/or who has made a personal impact in their community through their dedication and involvement in projects or activities directed toward fulfilling one or more of the IEEE WIE goals and objectives.

Eligibility: An IEEE Student Member or Graduate Student Member as of the submission deadline
A member of IEEE WIE for at least two consecutive (2) years
Must not be a past recipient of the IEEE Women in Engineering Inspiring Student Member of the Year Award

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IEEE Women in Engineering Inspiring Member of the Year Award

Organizer: IEEE WIE

Description: The purpose of this award is to recognize a professional member of IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) who has made an outstanding contribution to IEEE WIE, their community, and the engineering community, through their dedication and involvement in projects or activities directed toward fulfilling one or more of the IEEE WIE goals and objectives.

Eligibility: An IEEE Member grade or higher
A professional member of IEEE WIE for at least two (2) years
A professional working in industry/academia for greater than five (5) years
Must not be a past recipient of the IEEE Women in Engineering Inspiring Member of the Year Award

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Exemplary Student Affinity Group Award

Organizer: Region 9 SAC

Description: Exemplary Student Affinity Group will be considered those who demonstrate that they have good management of the institution’s internal and external resources and, mainly, effectively promote the theme of their affinity group through projects and activities. In addition, groups must have quality documentation, which can be used for the continuity of the group’s culture and dissemination of knowledge of good practices and ideas.

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Success Case Student Award

Organizer: Region 9 SAC

Description: If your organizational unit has carried out any innovative activity, which stands out among other activities within the Region, whether it had a correct organization, good audience, won a prize, generated funds and resources for the Branch or managed to have agreements with other universities, companies or institutions, is an excellent candidate to be chosen as a case of success!

Eligibility: • They have updated president and advisor / advisor information at IEEE vTools Officer
Reporting;
• They are active (have at least 10 members for Branches and 5 for Chapters / Affinity
Groups).
• Have submitted the 2020 student branch report.
In addition, only activities carried out during the period of August 2019 until June 2020
will be considered. Each organizational unit can send just 1 (one) success case.

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IEEE R9 Exemplary Student Technical Chapter Contest

Organizer: Region 9 SAC

Description: Will be considered to be exemplary those Student Technical Chapters that prove to have a good internal and external resources management and, mainly, effectively promote their Society area of study through projects and activities. In addition, these chapters should have quality documentation that can be useful for the group continuity and to share good practices knowledge and ideas.

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IEEE Regional Photography Student Contest

Organizer: Region 9 SAC

Description: The photo contest IEEE R9 is a fun way to show love by the institute through the activities that the Student Branches have done is through photographic records. Therefore, the photography contest of IEEE Region 9, in which all those registered images, related to IEEE can be a basis for the promotion of the Institute among the different branches, sections, advice or at the global level.

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International Future Energy Challenge College Student Competition

Description: The International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC) is an international student competition for innovation, conservation, and effective use of electrical energy.The competition is sponsored by the Industry Applications Society (IAS), Power & Energy Society (PES), Power Electronics Society (PELS), and Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA).

Eligibility: The competition is open to college and university student teams from recognized engineering programs in any location. Participation is on a proposal basis.

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Maiman Student Paper Competition

Organizer: HRL Laboratories, LLC, IEEE Photonics Society and APS Division of Laser Science.

Description: This competition was established in 2008 in memory of Theodore Maiman and in acknowledgement of his amazing invention, the first working laser, and his other outstanding contributions to optics and photonics. The program recognizes student innovation, research excellence and presentation skills in the areas of laser technology and electro-optics, and is endowed by HRL Laboratories, LLC, IEEE Photonics Society and APS Division of Laser Science.

Eligibility: undergraduate or graduate student of an educational institution of collegiate grade who is devoting more than half-time to studies within the institution at the time the paper was written.

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Singapore AUV Challenge

Description: Autonomous underwater robotics is an exciting challenge in engineering, which participants get to experience at SAUVC. The competition is great learning ground for participants to experience the challenges of AUV system engineering and develop skills in the related fields of mechanical, electrical and software engineering.

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National Ocean Sciences Bowl

Description: The NOSB is an academic competition and program that addresses a national gap in environmental and earth sciences in public education by introducing high school students to and engaging them in ocean science, preparing them for ocean science-related and other STEM careers, and helping them become knowledgeable citizens and environmental stewards.

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NPSS Student Paper Award

Organizer: The IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS)

Description: For outstanding student poster or oral papers as desired by each of the technical committees of NPSS that organizes a conference. The purpose of these awards is to encourage both outstanding student contributions and greater student participation as principal or sole authors of papers as well as to acknowledge the importance of student contributions to the fields embraced by the NPSS.

Eligibility: Any student who is the principal or sole author/researcher and the presenter of either a poster or oral paper at any IEEE NPSS conference that has chosen to provide outstanding student awards, and who has been identified as an eligible student author, will be eligible. If there is a tie, preference will be given 1) to IEEE NPSS members; 2) to IEEE members; or 3) to non-IEEE members.

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Three Minute Thesis IGARSS 2023

Organizer: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society

Description: This prestigious academic competition, founded by the University of Queensland, is designed to enhance students’ research communication and presentation skills by challenging them to describe their thesis topic in just three minutes to a general audience using one static slide.

Eligibility: To participate, simply submit a 3-minute video describing your research and thesis topic to a video platform like YouTube or TikTok. or through a private URL accessible only by the evaluation committee. Your video will be evaluated in the first round based on presentation skills (40%), scientific quality (40%) and originality (20%) of the topic presented.

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MTT-Sat Challenge

Organizer: The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society

Description: The MTT-Sat Challenge is a worldwide competition for teams of undergraduate and graduate students to design and build radio frequency (RF) and microwave hardware for small satellites. The most promising designs will undergo space environmental qualification testing and will be incorporated in a cubesat, which will be launched into orbit (in case MTT-Sat Challenge secures enough funding and a participation in cubesat projects). The main goal of the MTT-Sat Challenge is to advance space RF and microwave education, inspire students to pursue science and engineering education and careers, and prepare tomorrow’s leaders with the interdisciplinary teamwork skills, which are necessary for success. The MTT-Sat Challenge is managed by the IEEE Microwave Theory & Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S) with additional experts and advisors in the field.

Eligibility: undergraduate and graduate students

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IMS Student Design Competitions

Organizer: sponsored by the Technical Committees of the MTT

Description: The competition encourages students to employ creative problem solving and gain practical design experience by developing a circuit, or system to address a problem stated in the competition rules while following specified constraints. The students will bring their designs to the competition where they perform measurements and compete against other student teams. The winning teams are awarded cash prizes and recognized at the IMS student luncheon awards. In the IMS 2020 SDC we have 12 different competitions spanning a wide range of topics from power amplifier design to spectral sensing radios. Links to descriptions and rules for each competition rules are below.Winning teams are awarded cash prizes and a chance to publish their designs in the IEEE Microwave Magazine.

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IEEE International Sensors and Measurement Student Contest

Organizer: jointly promoted and organized by IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IMS), IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) and IEEE Sensors Council (SC) and is sponsored by STMicroelectronics

Description: The IEEE International Contest of Sensors and Measurement Systems is jointly promoted and organized by IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IMS), IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) and IEEE Sensors Council (SC) and is sponsored by STMicroelectronics who will provide one SensorTile.box® to each team admitted to the competition. This multisensory device will be the common technology platform of the contest. Those willing to participate will have to submit a proposal, will have to develop their application at their University laboratories and attend one of the scheduled live demonstration sessions co-located with international conferences in the areas of sensors and instrumentation and measurement. For each demonstration event, two awards will be assigned (1st and 2nd place) for the best “Sensors and Measurement Systems” application.

Eligibility: teams of Ph.D., Master and advanced undergraduates (particularly those in fast-track, dual BS/MS, Master programs) students

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IES Student Best Paper Award

Organizer: Industrial Electronics Society Awards and Honor Committee (IES A&H Committee).

Description: To recognize the student best paper in The Industrial Electronics Society publications and to encourage the student or graduate student author to contribute further in the field of industrial electronics.

Eligibility: Author(s) of papers in the Industrial Electronics Society publications during the year specified for the award, where the first author must be a student or a graduate student IEEE member. Must be student or graduate student member of the IEEE.

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IEEE GRSS Student Paper Competition

Organizer: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society

Description: The GRSS Student Prize Paper Award was established to recognize the best student paper(s) presented at the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). It is believed that early recognition of an outstanding paper will encourage the student to strive for greater and continued contributions to the Geoscience and Remote Sensing profession. The award shall be considered annually. These awards go to the 2nd and 3rd place students. For the 1st place student award refer to the Mikio Takagi Student Prize.

Eligibility: The (first) author(s) must:

  • contribute more than 60% of the content of the presented paper (if the contribution is less than 60%, the paper is not suitable for a student paper competition and can be submitted to the normal track),
  • be a student,
  • be under 33 years of age,
  • be a candidate for a graduate degree (PhD students included),
  • be an IEEE member,
  • publish the paper in the IGARSS digest,
  • be registered at IGARSS,
  • personally present the paper at IGARSS, and
  • be present at the IGARSS banquet to receive the award

Multiple eligible authors are allowed. An ineligible co-author, or an advisor, must verify on university letterhead that the candidate is a student, under 33 years of age, a candidate for a graduate degree, and an IEEE member on the submittal date of the paper. Eligibility and Selection process shall comply with procedures and regulation established in IEEE and Society governing documents, particularly with IEEE Policy 4.4 on Awards Limitations.

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IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest

Organiser: Image Analysis and Data Fusion Technical Committee (IADF TC) of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and the Technical University of Munich
Description: The Data Fusion Contest, organized by the Image Analysis and Data Fusion Technical Committee (IADF TC) of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and the Technical University of Munich, aims to promote research in large-scale land cover mapping from globally available multimodal satellite data. The task is to train a machine learning model for global land cover mapping based on weakly annotated samples. The 2020 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest consists of two challenge tracks:
Eligibility: The Contest is open not only to IEEE members but to everyone, with the goal of promoting innovation and benchmarking in analyzing multi-source big earth observation data.

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Student Paper Competition

Organizer: IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, in connection with the Annual International EMB Conference

Description: Annually the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society, in connection with the Annual International EMB Conference, sponsors a Student Paper Competition (SPC).

Eligibility: an active member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society at a Student Grade; Graduate Student Member or Undergraduate Student Member

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Motor Vehicle Challenge

Organizer: IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society

Description: The Radar Challenge is a new event co-hosted with radar conferences that enables participants to experience the magic of radar in a personal, tangible and experiential way—offering an opportunity to create and “see” invisible radar waves interacting with their environment. The event will host an unknown target scene that participants will then sense and decipher using their self-engineered “home-brew” radar. The goal is to build a community of radar builders that collectively explore the art of the possible in making “COTS-based” radars.

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Radar Challenge

Organizer: IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society

Description: The Radar Challenge is a series of events co-hosted with radar conferences that enable participants to experience the magic of radar in a personal, tangible and experiential way. ​ The events invigorate participants to experiment with their self-engineered “home-brew” radar, low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf RF sensors, and publicly available radar datasets. The goal is to build a community of radar engineers that collectively explore the art of the possible for a new generation of radars by creating and experimenting with prototype radars.

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IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Competitions

Organiser: IEEE Computational Intelligence Society

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IEEE R10 Student Branch Website Contest

Organizer: Region 10 SAC

Description: The IEEE Region 10 Student Branch Website Contest is designed to encourage student volunteers to fully utilize the power of the Internet for keeping members informed about the local activities and opportunities to participate. A well-maintained website with ease of navigation can be a great source of timely information and an appealing showcase for the local IEEE activities. IEEE Region 10 Student Activities Committee annually conducts a website contest and the Student Branches under the Sections of Region 10 are invited to submit entries of their websites.

Eligibility: IEEE Student Branches in Region 10

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IEEE R10 Student Research Paper Contest

Organizer: Region 10 SAC

Description: The IEEE Region 10 Student Activities Committee recognizes the importance of research and dissemination of the findings for the The IEEE Region 10 Student Activities Committee recognizes the importance of research and dissemination of the findings for the advancement of science and technology. Researching, writing, and presenting a paper provides students with invaluable early experience in communicating ideas related to their professional fields. The contest offers IEEE Student members an opportunity to exercise and improve both written and verbal communication skills.

Eligibility: Open to all IEEE Student Members with basic degrees in electrical engineering, electronics, computer science or any other fields of interest of an IEEE Society, and are currently enrolled in a postgraduate course at a recognized educational institute. The contest is open only to IEEE Student Members in Region 10. The papers may be on any engineering subject in the field of interest of IEEE (within the scope of IEEE transactions).

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IEEE R10 Undergraduate Student Project Video Contest

Organizer: Region 10 SAC

Description: The IEEE Region 10 Student Activities Committee recognizes the importance of communication skills for fresh graduates as throughout their engineering career, they are constantly called upon to communicate ideas to others. The contest offers IEEE student members an opportunity to exercise and improve both verbal communication and presentation skills in a concise manner suitable for wider audience. The contest provides students with invaluable early experience in communicating ideas related to their professional field via electronic media.

Eligibility: Open to all IEEE Student Members who currently enrolled or graduated within the last six months for degrees in electrical engineering, electronics, computer science or any other field of interest of an IEEE Society. The contest is open only to IEEE Student Members in Region 10. The project video may be on any engineering subject in the field of interest of IEEE (within the scope of IEEE transactions).

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IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest

Organizer: Region 8

Description: The IEEE Region 8 Student Paper Contest (SPC) started in 1967, only four years after IEEE R8 was formed. The SPC was an initiative of the second R8 Director, Jean Lebel. The first SPC was held in Lausanne, Switzerland in conjunction with the IEEE R8 Committee Meeting. Since then, it has been held every year without exception, and it is one of the main technical activities in Region 8. By organizing the Student Paper Contest, the IEEE Region 8 Student Activities Committee recognizes the importance of student research and the dissemination of their results and findings.

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IEEE Computer Society Lance Stafford Larson Paper Contest

Organizer: IEEE Computer Society

Description: In 1983, the Lance Stafford Larson Award was established by the Larson family in memorial for their son, who died in an electrical accident while an undergraduate at the University of Maryland. The Larson family, which includes IEEE Past President Robert Larson, created this award to encourage students to develop excellence in their communication skills and to motivate students toward achievement in the field of Computer Science.

One award of $500 is given each year to the first-place winner. First, second, and third place winners also receive a certificate of commendation. The prize is awarded to the best paper. In the case of multiple authors, the prize will be divided among the student authors.

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RoboCup

Organizer: Partnered with IEEE RAS

Description: RoboCup is arranged with the intention to use RoboCup as a vehicle to promote robotics and AI research, by offering a publicly appealing, but formidable challenge. One of the effective ways to promote science and engineering research is to set a challenging long term goal. When the accomplishment of such a goal has signifRoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. When established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050. While that mission remains, RoboCup has since expanded into other relevant application domains based on the needs of modern society. Today, RoboCup covers the themes of robot soccer, personal service robotics in living spaces, manipulation and manufacturing at work, and rescue robotics. In addition, RoboCupJunior is a project-oriented educational initiative that sponsors local, regional, and international robotic events for young students. It is designed to introduce RoboCup to primary and secondary school children.

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Bio+MedVis Challenge @ IEEE VIS 2023

Description: This year’s challenge will be based on a study recently published in Cancer Cell by the ProCan team (Gonçalves et al., 2022). The study aimed to generate a comprehensive pan-cancer proteomic map of human cell lines to aid in the discovery of cancer biomarkers and the development of new cancer treatments. The main challenge will be to create an integrated overview of cell-type / tissue-type / cancer-type distributions of both single proteins as well as protein categories. There will also be a re-design challenge connected to the improvement of the representation/interaction strategies used for one of the figures in the paper.

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SciVis Contest

Organizer: IEEE VIS 2020

Description: The 2020 IEEE SciVis Contest is dedicated to create novel approaches or state of the art visualizations to assist domain scientists to better understand the complex transport mechanisms of eddies in the Red Sea under uncertainty.

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MATE ROV Competitions

Description: The MATE competition challenges K-12, community college, and university students from all over the world to design and build ROVs to tackle missions modeled after scenarios from the ocean workplace.
Eligibility: Pre-University Students

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IAS Chapter Awards and Contests

Organiser: IEEE IAS
Eligibility: Open for all

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IAS CMD Student Robotics Demonstration Contest 2023

Organiser: IEEE IAS
Eligibility: At least one member of the team should be an IAS, IEEE member.

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IEEE Xplore Challenge

Description: The IEEE Xplore® Challenge for Researchers is open to academics, research scholars, and engineers from select areas, who are from universities, corporations, and government institutions and who have a subscription to IEEE Xplore, and are at least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of entry. The respondents with the highest quiz scores will be entered into a drawing to win one of several prizes.

Eligibility: All academics, research scholars, and engineers from Pakistan, Brazil, Asia, or Mexico, who are from universities, corporations, and government institutions who have a subscription to IEEE Xplore, and are at least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of entry.

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The Norman Miller Student Poster Competition

Organizer: IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society

Description: Each year the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society sponsors the Student Poster Competition at the spring and fall OCEANS Conferences. Cash awards for the winning posters and the travel, food, lodging, and registration expenses of all students participating in the competition are provided by OES.

Eligibility: Open for all

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IEEE Signal Processing Cup

Organizer: IEEE Signal Processing Society

Description: The Signal Processing Cup (SP Cup) competition is held annually and encourages teams of students to work together to solve real-world problems using signal processing methods and techniques. Each year, three final teams are chosen to present their work during ICASSP to compete for the US$5,000 grand prize!

Eligibility: Each team participating should be composed of one faculty member or someone with a PhD degree employed by the university (the Supervisor), at most one graduate student (the Tutor), and at least three, but no more than ten undergraduate students. At least three of the undergraduate team members must hold either regular or student memberships of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. Undergraduate students who are in the first two years of their college studies, as well as high school students who are capable to contribute are welcome to participate in a team. A participant cannot be on more than one team.

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CASS Student Design Competition

Organiser : IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CAS)

Description: The CASS Student Design Competition is a worldwide competition where undergraduate students will team with high school students. The teams should suggest and execute projects aimed at encouraging High School Students to study Electrical Engineering and related areas. The focus should be on finding a solution to a real-life problem based on circuits and systems.

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IEEE ComSoc Student Competition

Organizer: IEEE Communications Society

Description: The competition, Communication Technology Changing the World, recognizes students or teams of students who demonstrate the capacity to improve the lives of people through the application of communication technology and the development of projects that meet the needs of humanity.

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IEEEmadC

Organizer:IEEE Computer Society
Description:IEEEmadC (Mobile Applications Development Contest), is a 6-8 month competition which was initially focused to inspire student members in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to develop mobile applications. It has escalated into a globally recognized competition.

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IEEEXtreme

Organizer:MGA Student Activities Committee
Description:IEEEXtreme is a global challenge in which teams of IEEE Student members – advised and proctored by an IEEE member, and often supported by an IEEE Student Branch – compete in a 24-hour time span against each other to solve a set of programming problems.

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