This competition provides student members a start on the professional path through paper publication. Finalists must have completed the work and submitted the paper no later than six months after graduation from an ABET approved school at the undergraduate level. Papers will be reviewed according to the regular ASME standards for technical pamphlet publications. From the accepted papers, the ASME Design Division's Education Committee chooses finalists based on the design aspects of the work. Submitted manuscripts should follow the format for an ASME technical pamphlet publication, Manual MS-4.
Many accredited programs use design project reports to partially satisfy the ABET requirements.
The effort to transform an outstanding report into an acceptable ASME technical paper is not great.