Altair Sets Up 2024-2025 Global Student Contest

Altair has launched the 2024-2025 Altair Global Student Contest. The contest is open to students who want to show off their engineering and design talents for a chance to win recognition and cash prizes. The contest—which will award nearly $30,000 in cash prizes—will showcase how students are using Altair software to create innovations, specifically in robotics and mechatronics.

“This year's Global Student Contest places a special emphasis on robotics thanks to Altair's extensive collaboration with FIRST over several years,” says Jim Ryan, vice president of global academic programs, Altair. “Our comprehensive technology offering is perfect for students of all levels, giving them the means to bolster their portfolio, sharpen their skill sets, collaborate more effectively, and become Real-World Ready by the time they're ready to launch their careers.”

The Global Student Contest will run from October 2024 through June 2025. Students are invited to optimize a robotics application of their choice, which could include a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) robot, manufacturing robot, robotic arm, battle bot, or any other robotic system. Optimizations can target electrical, mechanical, structural, lightweighting, motion, or functional aspects, such as using data to enhance the robot's performance during operation.

Though students can use any solution from the Altair HyperWorks and Altair RapidMiner platforms, they are recommended to use at least one of Altair's more student-friendly optimization tools: Altair Inspire, Altair AI Studio, and Altair PSIM. Students must submit a video that explains their project's methodology and results. At the end of each quarter during the contest period, participants have the chance to win $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second place, and $500 for third place.

In addition, throughout the contest Altair will award three FIRST team sponsorships of $5,000 each. Teams can earn a chance to win by submitting short, reel-like testimonial videos that explain how Altair tools have helped them and why they enjoy using them. Altair will also name three Altair Student Ambassadorships, which give each recipient a chance to earn up to $1,000 for their contributions as a student ambassador. More info on the student ambassadorships can be found on the contest's webpage.

“We are delighted to see one of our corporate sponsors offer a global student contest which includes encouraging our pre-university students to apply their skills to building next-gen robotics,” says Scott Legasse, senior manager for corporate relations, FIRST. “Altair strives to help students of all ages be real-world ready, and this is another indication that they are focused on that effort.”

FIRST is a global nonprofit public charity corporation founded in 1989 with the goal of preparing young people for the future through inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18. The FIRST Robotics Competition program debuted in 1992 and operates in more than 28 countries and regions worldwide with participants in grades 8-12. FIRST has reached more than 3.2 million student participants around the world since its inception.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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