The student design competitions will take place on Tuesday, 17 June 2025 at the Moscone Center. A detailed schedule will be available soon!
Winners will be recognized at the Student Awards Luncheon on Thursday, 19 June 2025. Student competitors should be aware that the IMS will not assist participants in getting necessary equipment or designed circuits/systems into the United States.
Prize Amounts:
1st Place =$1500
2nd Place =$1000
3rd Place =$500
All eligible students or student teams are invited to participate in the International Microwave Symposium 2025 Student Design Competitions (SDCs). The competition encourages students to employ creative problem solving and gain practical design experience by developing a circuit, or system to address a problem stated in the competition rules while following specified constraints. The students will bring their designs to the competition where they perform measurements and compete against other student teams. We have different competitions spanning a wide range of topics from power amplifier design to antenna design. Links to descriptions and rules for each competition are below. Winning teams are awarded cash prizes, recognized at the IMS student luncheon awards, and a chance to publish their designs in the IEEE Microwave Magazine.
Design Competition Topics:
Click the links below to download the individual competition descriptions and rules:
SDC1 - Allen Katz High Efficiency Power Amplifier
SDC2 - Miniaturized Magnetoceramic Composite Antenna
SDC3 - Switched Acoustic Filter Module
SDC4 - Radar Tracking Challenge: Amplifying Rocket RCS with Retro-Reflective Systems
SDC6 - Wide Passband Bandstop Filter
SDC7 - mmWave Multi-Beam 3D-printed Antenna Design
SDC8 - High-Efficiency Power Amplifier for 144 MHz
SDC9 - Power Amplifier Linearization through Digital Predistortion (DPD)
How to Participate:
To participate in a competition, click the link below and follow the instructions. You will be asked to provide contact information for all team members and your academic advisor, and you will also need to upload a short abstract describing your design approach. In addition, your academic advisor must send an email to the organizers of the competition certifying that the work is yours, not theirs. The application deadline is 23 May 2025. Students are advised to contact the individual competition organizers as early as possible, to ensure a full understanding of the design specifications and judging criteria before beginning their projects.
Click Here to Submit Your Application
General Rules and Requirements:
Note: Some competitions have requirements which are different than those listed below. Where stated, each individual competition's specific rules and deadlines will supersede these general rules.
- Teams may consist of 1-4 people.
- All team members must be full-time students while working on the project.
- At least one team member must register for IMS2025 and attend the student design competitions in person on Tuesday, 17 June 2025 in order to assist with measurements (where applicable) and answer questions.
- You must notify the student design competition organizers at least one week before the date of the competitions if you plan to withdraw or will not be able to participate in person. Failure to participate in person may prevent you from being accepted for future participation.
- Your professors and advisors must certify that this is your work, not theirs.
- You must submit a competition application form no later than Friday, 23 May 2025, or as indicated in the rules of the competition of interest. You are encouraged to contact the coordinators of the competition of your interest as early as possible to ensure a full understanding of the design specifications and judging criteria before your submission.
- Travel visas and shipping your project equipment are your responsibility, it is recommended to arrange these as early as possible.
Student Design Competitions are sponsored by the Technical Committees of the MTT. Each committee has been given prize money if they choose to sponsor a competition in their technical area. Not all technical committees participate in the competition every year. Each will make their own rules for the competitions that they sponsor.
Contact Information:
General questions or comments can be directed to the IMS2025 Student Design Competition Chairs, Hazal Yüksel and Benson Chan at ims2025.sdc@gmail.com.
Questions or comments regarding a specific design competition should be directed to the organizers of the competition in question, which will be listed on the competition descriptions (links above).