AIAA Design Competition Rules

I. Eligibility Requirements
• All AIAA Student members are eligible and encouraged to participate. Membership with AIAA
must be current to submit a report and to receive any prizes.
• Students must submit their letter of intent and final report via the online submission to be eligible
to participate. No extensions will be granted.
• More than one design may be submitted from students at any one school. At large student
members may collaborate with each other even if they do not attend the same university.
• If a design group withdraws their final report from the competition, the team leader must notify
AIAA Headquarters immediately.
• Design projects that are used as part of an organized classroom requirement are eligible and
encouraged for competition.

II. Schedule
• The schedule for AIAA Design Competitions will be posted to the Design Competitions program
website each year by 15 August. The schedule posted to the program website is the final schedule
unless otherwise stated.
• All Letter Of Intent and Final Report submissions must be made via the online submission form,
which can be found at www.aiaa-awards.org.
• For the Engine Design Competition, Round 1 evaluations will be completed by 30 June, and Round
2 evaluations will take place at the Propulsion & Energy Forum.

III. Categories/Submissions
• The number and types of categories/competitions on offer in any given year is at the discretion
of the AIAA Student Activities Committee (SAC)
• Team Submissions
o Team competitions will be groups of not less than 3 and not more than 10AIAA Student
Members per entry, unless specified in the competition Request For Proposal (RFP).
• Individual Submissions
o Individual competitions will consist of only one AIAA Student member per entry.
• Graduate
o Graduate students may participate in the graduate categories only.
• Undergraduate
o Undergraduate students may participate in the undergraduate categories only.
• Letter of Intent (LOI)
o A Letter of Intent indicating interest in participating in the design competitions is required
before submitting a final report.
o All Letters of Intent must be submitted through the online submission system.

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 o Letter of Intent must include student’s names, emails, AIAA membership numbers, faculty
advisor(s) names, emails, and project advisor(s) names and emails. Incomplete LOIs will
result in the Team or Individual being ineligible to compete in the competition.
• Submission of Final Design Report
Each team or individual must provide an electronic copy their design report as outlined below to
the online Submission site, www.aiaa-awards.org -
o An electronic copy of the report in Adobe PDF format must be submitted to AIAA using
the online submission site. Total size of the file cannot exceed 20 MB.
o Electronic report files must be named (ex): “2018_[university]_DESIGN_REPORT.pdf”
o A “Signature” page must be included in the report and indicate all participants, including
faculty and project advisors, along with students’ AIAA member numbers and signatures.
If the submitting team is comprised of at-large student members, each student member
needs to include the name of the university he or she attends.
o Electronic reports should be no more than 100 pages, double-spaced (including graphs,
drawings, photographs, and appendices) if it were to be printed on 8.5”x11.0” paper, and
the font should be no smaller than 10 pt. Times New Roman.

IV. Copyright

All submissions to the competition shall be the original work of the team members.
Authors retain copyright ownership of all written works submitted to the competition. By virtue of
participating in the competition, team members and report authors grant AIAA non-exclusive license to
reproduce submissions, in whole or in part, for all of AIAA’s current and future print and electronic uses.
Appropriate acknowledgment will accompany any reuse of materials.

V. Conflict of Interest

It should be noted that it shall be considered a conflict of interest for a design professor to write or assist
in writing RFPs and/or judging proposals submitted if (s)he will have students participating in, or that can
be expected to participate in those competitions. A design professor with such a conflict must refrain
from participating in the development of such competition RFPs and/or judging any proposals submitted
in such competitions.

VI. Awards
The prize money provided for the competitions is funded through the AIAA Foundation. The monetary
awards may differ for each competition, with a maximum award of $1,000. The award amounts will be
listed on the AIAA Design Competitions program website once per year at the beginning of each cycle.

One representative from the first place team may be invited by the Technical Committee responsible for
the RFP to make a presentation of their design at an AIAA forum. A travel stipend may be available for
some competitions, with a maximum travel stipend of $750 which may be used to help with costs for
flight, hotel, or conference registration to attend an AIAA forum.

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 VII. Proposal Requirements
The technical proposal is the most important factor in the award of a contract. It should be specific and
complete. While it is realized that all of the technical factors cannot be included in advance, the following
should be included:

• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements.

• Describe the proposed technical approaches to comply with each of the requirements specified
in the RFP, including phasing of tasks. Legibility, clarity, and completeness of the technical
approach are primary factors in evaluation of the proposals.
• Particular emphasis should be directed at identification of critical, technical problem areas.
Descriptions, sketches, drawings, systems analysis, method of attack, and discussions of new
techniques should be presented in sufficient detail to permit engineering evaluation of the
proposal. Exceptions to proposed technical requirements should be identified and explained.
• Include tradeoff studies performed to arrive at the final design.
• Provide a description of automated design tools used to develop the design.

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 VIII. Basis for Judging
The AIAA Technical Committee that developed the RFP will serve as the judges of the final reports. They
will evaluate the reports using the categories and scoring listed below. The judges reserve the right to not
award all three places. Judges’ decisions are final.

1. Technical Content (35 points)

This concerns the correctness of theory, validity of reasoning used, apparent understanding and grasp of
the subject, etc. Are all major factors considered and a reasonably accurate evaluation of these factors
presented?

2. Organization and Presentation (20 points)

The description of the design as an instrument of communication is a strong factor on judging.

Organization of written design, clarity, and inclusion of pertinent information are major factors.

3. Originality (20 points)

The design proposal should avoid standard textbook information, and should show the independence of
thinking or a fresh approach to the project. Does the method and treatment of the problem show
imagination? Does the method show an adaptation or creation of automated design tools?

4. Practical Application and Feasibility (25 points)

The proposal should present conclusions or recommendations that are feasible and practical, and not
merely lead the evaluators into further difficult or insolvable problems.

Contact Details:
For more information about this program, please contact us at [email protected].

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