From Our Partners: TISP Presents the 2016 Collegiate Infrastructure Challenge and Call for Sponsors

At the 2016 Critical Infrastructure Symposium on April 4th, The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) Council of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) will host the Collegiate Infrastructure Challenge. This high-impact competition will be held over a 24-hour period and include as many as ten student-led teams each comprising up to five participants[1].

The Infrastructure Challenge is an open-ended student competition that provides an opportunity for participants to engage critically, creatively and completely with an extremely complex infrastructure problem and envision and describe a transformative solution.

SIGNING-UP:

Team Captains should contact Jacqueline Barrett at jbarrett@same.org or 703-373-7980 to register their student team. Be prepared to provide the names and email addresses of five students and all academic advisors listed on your team roster. We are limited to accepting ten academic institutions in 2016. The first ten teams to pay the registration fees will be accepted as competitors. Student Registrations are $75.00

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Written instructions and fairness rules will be provided via email prior to and on the day of April 4, 2016.
• Team Captains and an Academic Advisor are expected to participate in a planning conference call. We will review the rules, agenda of the challenge, resources provided and evaluation criteria as well as answer questions during the conference call.
• Teams pay registration fees to SAME. E-mail team name, team members with email addresses, University name, and point of contact to Jackie Barrett, TISP Program Coordinator, at jbarrett@same.org.

AGENDA:

April 4: Day One

7:30 a.m.   Team In-brief and Challenge distribution.

8:00 a.m.  Competition begins—Each team will be provided the same supplies: to include work space, internet connectivity, butcher paper and markers.  Competitors can take their meals and breaks and snacks with Symposium attendees.

April 5: Day Two

8:00 a.m.                     Teams complete work and turn in all products on CD.

9:00 a.m.- 10:30 a.m.  Each team gives a 10-minute presentation on their                                   challenge solution in a Tech Session

10:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Judging and evaluation

12:45 a.m.                               Announcement of winners—Winning team presents their                       winning challenge solution at the Closing Plenary Session                            of the 2016 Critical Infrastructure Symposium

Expectations of Participants:

• Register by March 21, 2016 and pay student registration fee for each competitor.
• Develop an innovative solution to the challenge and communicate the solution to the judges through a 1-minute recorded video presentation, 10-minute oral presentation, and 1,500 word magazine-type article.
• Participate in post-event publication opportunities as appropriate.

Incentives for participants:

• The winning team receives a prize presented by a Sponsoring Company (exact prize to be determined based on Sponsor commitment).
• The winning team’s article will be reviewed for possible publication in 2016 as an exclusive article for TME Online or in the TME Year in Review special issue (published digitally in December). Selected competitor articles will be reviewed for publication in a special edition of George Mason University’s CIP Report.
• All participants will receive a Certificate of Appreciation.

Call for Sponsors

For any organization interested in sponsoring the 2016 Critical Infrastructure Symposium, more information can be found here.