Overview and Basic Rules
Postgraduate Category
o Postgraduate category is for University and Research staff working on their Diploma, Master or PhD and for researchers in
public research Centers.
o Team Formation
• Participants can apply individually but it's recommended to form teams.
o Joining the finals
• You have to choose which finals you will join, i.e. either finals of this year or a later one.
• Joining the finals, means that you will have your project/research finished and your prototype is ready and working.
o Sponsorship Details:
• Having a sponsor is not mandatory, but in case of getting a sponsor, this will be a plus in the overall judging in the
competition
• Sponsors Can be:
o Industry Entities.
o Private business companies.
o Governmental Organizations.
o Professioanl category is for Professionals representing themselves, with a condition of not having funding from companies where
they are working in.
o Team Formation
• Participants can apply individually but it's recommended to form teams.
o Sponsorship Details:
• Sponsored & non sponsored projects will be treated the same but in case of getting a sponsor, it must not be the entity
that the participant is working for.
• Sponsors Can be:
o Industry Entities.
o Private business companies.
o Governmental Organizations.
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Competition Schedule
| Activity |
Date |
| Announcement Session |
Not set yet |
| Submit Final Idea (1st Filtration Point) |
28th February 2010 |
| Training |
26th March 2010 |
| Submit Final Report (2nd Filtration Point) |
1st June 2010 |
| Finals (Prototype is ready) |
4th August 2010 |
Announcement Session
An introductory session will be held to present the competition phases and will include a discussion to answer any questions from the attendees. Date, time and place will be announced later
Market Research and Sponsor Engagement Phase
Teams should study the market and make a market research with the target of having a project idea that satisfies real need.
Submit Final Idea (1st Filtration Point)
The filtration will be based on the submitted proposal. The project part should cover these main points:
• Technical Approach: Describe your project and what it does (Not how it works). Describe your overall design and the
underlying technology of your project. Show also your anticipated plan to finalize the prototype; Will it be pure H/W or
pure S/W or mixed? Write the needed software/hardware tools to accomplish the project.
• Business Vision: Show the market segments that will be interested in your product/service. What are the customer needs
that your project addresses? Why will they buy it? Do you anticipate developing IP protection for your technology? If Yes,
then How?
Concept Development and System Level Design
In this stage each team should generate different design concepts for their project and find an integral solution for any
problem related to the project.
Teams should refer to the book “Product Design and Development” for more information about this stage.
Mid Year Training
The training will include softskills, business skilss and technical training. The training represents an orientation phase
for teams to help in enhancing their entrepreneurial skills to take their innovations into market.
Detailed Design and Testing Phase
Teams should finish complete specifications of the product – materials, geometry, purchased parts…etc – and prepare the process
plan for the fabrication and assembly of the project, and more.
Also should finish prototype forming and evaluation on several copies before yielding the real product.
Submit Final Report
This report will cover the technical design and the prototyping issues. It’ll be very useful to guide you to reach a strong
design and get used to make technical design documents. The filtration will be based on your project’s technical and business
aspects in more details.
Qualified teams will make it to the MIE Finals.
Finals (Prototype is ready)
Judging Panels
The teams will present their projects to judges’ panel:
o There will be 2 judges in your projects’ fields; one will judge it from the technical and other from business points of views.
o The Judges will have your projects’ abstracts and reports to have a clear picture about the project.