In order to participate in the contest, students must optimize a robotics or mechatronics application of their choice.

Optimizing can mean:

• reducing the weight/ mass
• increasing stability
• increasing sustainability
• improving functionality
• and much more.

If you're not sure if your planned project is eligible, ask us through the community here.

The contest is open to all students who are currently enrolled in an academic institution (e.g. university, college, high school), regardless of their age or discipline. If you are under 18 years old, please have your parent or legal guardian read the consent document for minors and consent to it by adding their full name into the specified form field when submitting your entry.

Depending on your current proficiency and experience level with our software, you may either only need to record a video that describes a previously completed robotics optimization project, or you might first need to learn our software and then apply your new skill to your chosen robotics optimization, which would take considerably more time.

But as a rule of thumb, if you're already familiar with our software, it might not take you more than a week to create and submit a valid entry.

Yes! The contest is free. Altair provides all the software and training required to participate. To compete, you only need a computer with internet access and a desire to learn and succeed.

We highly recommend using Inspire, AI Studio, or PSIM (depending on the planned optimization) for the contest since it's an excellent choice for students and professionals alike. But you may use any Altair tool from the Student Edition Bundle.

Here's why:
•    Its modern, user-friendly GUI: Inspire, AI Studio, and PSIM are relatively easy to learn and use right away.
•    They all are versatile, multidisciplinary tools that apply to many robotics applications.
•    Seamless compatibility: All of them are equipped to work with other industry-grade tools within and outside of Altair (e.g. Inspire is compatible with most CAD tools).

However as stated above, if you prefer, you can also use another software from Altair's comprehensive suite of tools.

An Altair Student Ambassador is a university student who is passionate about using Altair tools and convinced that they can help other students as well. 

As a Student Ambassador, you help us spread the word about applicable Altair tools at your university by:

• speaking with fellow students and professors about Altair solutions
• arranging Altair-led meetings, workshops, or lunch-and-learns with interested groups at your university
• promoting Altair's academic activities at your university by hanging out flyers, sending emails, etc.

For ambassadors with extended knowledge of our tools:

• host your own workshop or tutorial sessions
• create learning materials or videos for students which we can display on our website

All Altair Student Ambassadors are additionally encouraged to bring their own ideas on how they can help us promote our tools and offerings at their university.

Both options are available, and there is no limit to the team size. However, all prizes awarded are per submission, not per person.

Students must create a video outlining the optimization process and what they learned, then upload it to the public video platform of their choice (e.g. YouTube), and then submit their video link through the form on the submission page.

• Student or team name
• Current university or institution
• Altair product(s) used
• Parameter(s) optimized
• Amount of improvement
• Lessons learned
• Visual/graphical representation of the results.
• The video must be less than five minutes long and feature no copyrighted material (e.g. music, images, video clips, etc.)

A testimonial reel is essentially a short (up to 60 seconds) video of yourself explaining why you love to work with Altair tools. If you have ever seen Instagram, TikTok or YouTube shorts video you get the idea.

By the way, the best testimonial reels will be featured in Altair's Instagram stories and highlights! 😎

The testimonial reel must include short answers to all of the following questions:

• What's your name/ team's name?
• What's the name of your school/ university?
• Which Altair tool(s) have you used before and for what?
• Why do you like working with Altair tools?
• For FIRST students/ teams only: How would the Altair Sponsorship help your team?
• For University students only: Why do you want to be an Altair Ambassador?

Students must submit their video (YouTube link or link of any other public video platform) to Altair via the form on the submission page to be considered for a prize.

Yes! If you are not ready to submit a robotics optimization project yet or if you only use Altair tools for non-robotic applications that don't qualify for the contest, you can only submit a testimonial reel and qualify for one of the additional prizes (team sponsorship for FIRST Robotics teams, or Altair Student Ambassadorship).

Absolutely! You can submit your video in any language you feel comfortable with. We encourage participants to express themselves in the language that best suits their needs and demonstrates their proficiency.

Absolutely! Students must agree to allow Altair to use their videos in promotional materials. We want to show off your amazing work to our global community.

Don't hesitate to also create a testimonial reel as a testament to your software skill and knowledge, especially with prospective employers. Additionally, you may stand the chance to win a team sponsorship for your FRC team or a paid Altair Ambassadorship.

Students may record and share an up to 60-second long testimonial reel, expressing what Altair tools they have used and why they liked them. This video, just like the optimization video, must be submitted as a link through the form on the submission page and will be judged separately from the main submission.

A main submission to the contest IS NOT necessary to participate in the testimonial reel part of the contest.

Yes. Students can submit more than one entry per quarterly challenge and throughout the entire contest. But the submissions MUST be unique and substantively different from each other to get multiple chances to win.

The international judging team made up of technical experts at Altair will be judging all submissions and all decisions are final.

Yes and No. 😀

If you are a university student who is affiliated with an FRC team as a mentor or other supporter, you may submit your testimonial reel in their favor and win the sponsorship for the team.

But the sponsorships will only be paid out to the leader or treasurer of team and not to an individual student.

Judges will consider:

• Amount of Design Improvement
• Creativity/Innovation
• Feasibility/ Manufacturability
• Creative use of Altair Products (for bonus points)
• Multiple Physics Usage (for bonus points)
• Social Media Engagement (for bonus points)
• Video Quality/ Fun of Watching (for bonus points)

If enough students from your class participate your course professor can talk to Altair at academicsupport@altair.com. We can help explain the learning and engineering skills gained, which may earn you credits in your university course.

Absolutely! Educators can write to us or check out our academic hub pages for Inspire, AI Studio, and PSIM to get learning material and training to create an exciting course curriculum around this contest.

You can visit the competitions forum here in the Altair Community and ask questions or get help regarding technical support, software usage, or training.