Circuit Design Competition

The Student Circuit Design competition encourages student’s ability to design and build circuits based on given practical requirements and constraints. This years competition will be themed around sensor based actuation and competing teams will all be provided the same problem statement. The tentative component list is below

Eligibility

The Student Circuit design Competition invites the IEEE Student Branches and IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu Chapters at universities throughout IEEE Region 5 to send a team composed of two or three undergraduate students to compete. The teams should submit their intent to compete form. Teams are selected from the submitted pool on a first come first served basis. Selected teams will be invited to register for the R5 conference and participate in the competition. Team substitutions are at the discretion of the competition chair.

Only one team is allowed from each IEEE Student Branch or IEEE-HKN Chapter due to space limitations.

Rules and Guidelines

At the beginning of the competition all teams will receive the same technical problem statement and necessary components, testing and measuring equipment. The tentative event day schedule is given below:

• Orientation – 9:00 am.
• Circuit design – 9:15 am to 1:30 pm. During this time teams will be working on their design in the designated work bench.
• Prepare the pitch – 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm. Recommended time to prepare for the pitch.
• Judging – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. During this time judges will visit each team to evaluate their circuit design

Team and Student Registration

Each team MUST complete the online Intent to Compete form to declare their intention to participate. This is NOT the same as registering for the IEEE Region 5 conference. In addition to this each team must also register for the conference by February 14, 2025 to ensure their place to compete. The fee for registration is $150 for IEEE members and $250 otherwise.

Space is limited and the competition registration will close when the available space for twenty (20) teams is filled, but no later than 12:00 am CDT on March 15, 2025. As of November 7, 2024, there is available space for 12 teams in the competition.

Awards

Winners will be awarded the following prize money

• 1st Place – $500
• 2nd Place – $250
• 3rd Place – $150

A W-8 (foreign person) or W-9 (US person) withholding form is required by the IEEE Region 5 Treasurer prior to disbursement. The winners must also provide their current mailing address.

Contact

We use Discord as our primary means of communicating updates about individual competitions. Click on the button below to join the R5 Discord Server. Inside the server you can find channels for all the competitions, including the Circuit Design competition (#circuits-general). The competition chairs and volunteers are members of the channel, and will respond to any questions you might have.

We strongly recommend the participants to be part of the Discord server, as all the updates regarding individual competitions will be communicated via their corresponding channels (including during the day of the event).