The Cornell Cup is an annual college-level embedded design competition created by Cornell Systems Engineering and hosted by Cornell University. The competition was an initiative originally created by Cornell University and Intel, and now partnered with Arm, to "empower student teams to become the inventors of the newest innovative applications of embedded technology". The competition is designed to allow college students the opportunity to transform ideas into real products with actual results. Various awards are given with a range of prizes between $1,000 and $10,000.
History
The competition was announced in late 2011 by Intel as a way of finding and encouraging college students to develop ideas and transform them into robust products. The competition is built based on the highly successful Intel Cup China that attracts over 26,000 students annually.
Qualification
To qualify for the application stage, a team must be formed with the following requirements:
The team must be between 3 and 5 students
Each student must be enrolled full-time in any accredited U.S. university
Students must be enrolled full-time in an undergraduate or masters
Students must be engineering, science, or computer science students
Students must complete the application stage by the designated deadline
Competition summary
The competition involves two stages: an applications stage and a finalists stage.
Applications Stage
The application stage typically takes place in the months the previous year of the competition. Teams must complete an application which includes a team interest form, a competition integrity form, and a 7 application questions form by the designated deadline. Applications are reviewed by the Cornell review team which in turn selects up to 35 of the top application submissions. The selected team can then participate in the final competition.
Finalists Support
Finalists are given an array of support as they work through their plan.
Hardware - Each team is given the latest Intel Atom board. The board is equipped with an Intel Atom, an FPGA, and a large array of I/O. Additionally various other equipment is provided from secondary sponsors. Funding - Each team is provided $1,500 in financial support to aid their project and team. Access - Each team is given direct access to Intel technical leaders other sponsoring companies' experts who are designing and developing embedded hardware and application commercially. Training - Cornell Systems Engineering offers an online guide system to hone students professional design skills Invitation - Teams are invited to the public expo
Finalists Stage
The top application submissions that have been chosen have roughly half a year to make their project come to fruition. The teams are responsible for following through their application. A final report is required to be submitted by the deadline. The competition holds an all-day public expo during May where judges hear a six-minutes pitch, asking questions, examining posters, and checking out the demos. Each team undergoes a more in-depth, private review process.
During the final day of the expo, the winners are announced and awarded first, second, or third place in various categories. Various other sponsors may potentially offer special awards to various teams in addition to these awards. The expo takes place at Walt Disney World in May.
Awards
During the expo a number of awards will be given away in addition to the grand prize award.
Cornell Cup USA, presented by Intel Grand Prizes
The top 3 highest total score winners will be awarded first, second, and third Cornell Cup USA, presented by Intel Grand Prizes respectively. Winners are typically announced during the final day of the expo.
The grand prize winner will receive $10,000. Second place team will receive $5,000. Third place team will receive $2,500.
People's Choice Award
During the Cornell Cup Expo, all competition participants will be able to have a single vote for their choice of team. These votes will determine the winning team. People's Choice Award will go to the team receiving the most participants' votes but did not win one of the 3 grand prizes.
Wild Card Award
Teams that have successfully submitted an application, but were not chosen as finalists are allowed to submit a final report. Their final report must follow the same rules and guidelines as the finalists. The Wild Card Award is given to a team who were deemed strong enough by the review judges.