WHAT WE WANT TO BUILD

From Shared Interest to a Common Goal

Projects begin with students: an idea, technology or real-world problem that several members genuinely care about. Students with aligned interests form a project team, define a common goal and combine their strengths to pursue it. The standard is clear: build an end-to-end solution, prove what it can do with measurable evidence, and develop the strongest work far enough to compete for serious recognition.

Student-led, with experienced guidance when needed. Experienced technologists from industry provide technical guidance and mentorship when project teams need it, while students remain responsible for the project goals, decisions and work.

Students outdoors watching a drone in flight during a technology session — Real student activity: an outdoor drone flight session.

Perception & Autonomy

Computer vision, AI inference, navigation, obstacle avoidance, precision positioning and autonomous decision-making.

Real-World Use

Safety inspection, environmental monitoring, emergency assessment and other problems where intelligent aerial systems can create practical value.

Evidence, Not Just a Demo

Define success metrics, collect data, quantify performance, document limitations and improve the system through repeated testing.

PROJECT FOCUS & INTENDED OUTCOMES

From Research to Real-World Results

Project teams explore meaningful applications, design the full solution, investigate hard technical problems and build systems they can test. These are focus areas and intended outcomes, not claims that all projects are already underway or completed.

01

Real-World Use Cases

Emergency response, environmental inspection, safety and security; indoor applications as a potential direction.

02

Solution Architecture

End-to-end system design, shared components, use-case-specific requirements, industry practices and regulations.

03

Research Challenges

Precision landing, human and anomaly detection, obstacle avoidance and hazard detection.

04

Technical Implementation

Integrate AI, software, sensors and hardware into working systems, experiments and demonstrations.

CONCRETE TARGETS

Possible Missions

AI Safety Inspection

Mission: autonomously inspect a defined area and identify selected hazards or anomalies using computer vision.

Measure: detection accuracy, false positives, route repeatability and mission completion reliability.

Precision Autonomous Landing

Mission: combine vision and onboard sensing to land repeatedly on a specified target where ordinary GPS is not precise enough.

Measure: landing error, success rate, robustness under changing light and operating conditions.

Environmental Monitoring

Mission: collect imagery or sensor data autonomously and use AI to identify, map or quantify a condition of interest.

Measure: coverage, data quality, classification accuracy, repeatability and usefulness of the resulting analysis.

These are candidate missions, not claims of completed projects. Project teams help choose the problem, architecture, success criteria and competition strategy based on the interests and strengths of their members.

COMPETITION PATHWAYS

One Strong Project. Different Ways to Prove Its Value.

A technically strong project can sometimes be developed through different competition lenses, subject to each competition's current eligibility, originality and submission rules.

Conrad Challenge

Best lens: innovation + technology + real-world impact. A strong destination for an integrated product or system with a compelling problem, design and use case.

Explore Conrad Challenge →

Diamond Challenge

Best lens: business or social venture. Frame the technology around the customer, beneficiary, value proposition and a credible path to impact.

Explore Diamond Challenge →

Regeneron ISEF Pathway

Best lens: rigorous research or engineering. Define a research/engineering question, follow applicable rules, generate data and qualify through an affiliated fair.

Explore Regeneron ISEF →

Blue Ocean Competition

Best lens: differentiated entrepreneurial concept. Explain why the solution creates new value and communicate it through a concise, compelling pitch.

Explore Blue Ocean →

THE STANDARD

What We Want Every Major Project to Produce

Working PrototypeSource CodeSystem ArchitectureTest DataMeasured ResultsTechnical ReportDemo VideoCompetition-Ready Story

The goal is not merely participation. It is evidence of what the team—and each student—actually accomplished.

Build Something Worth Showing

A strong project should let a student explain the problem, the technical decisions, their personal contribution, what failed, what changed, what the data showed and why the final result matters.

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF

EXPLORE MORE

Find the Path That Matches Your Interest

AI Projects for High School Students Coding & Computer Science Projects Drone & Robotics Projects STEM Competitions Building a STEM Portfolio