University Engineering Design Challenge Program | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The University Engineering Design Challenge Program is a discretionary grant opportunity offered by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Rapid Reaction Team. Its main purpose is to promote and sustain university-based research and education that supports innovative military systems and related technologies, with a strong emphasis on hands-on, practical engineering design at the undergraduate level. Rather than funding open-ended research projects, the program is organized as an annual design challenge that runs on an academic-year schedule and culminates in a competitive end-of-year event where university teams are evaluated against each other.

The core structure is a yearly competition in which AFRL leadership defines the specific design objectives and constraints at the beginning of the academic year. Undergraduate teams at participating universities then work through the full engineering design process to produce a solution that best meets those requirements. The program is explicitly intended to strengthen real-world design engineering education, including systems engineering practices and the discipline of turning high-level goals into actionable technical requirements. It highlights skills such as requirements allocation and flowdown, design synthesis, iterative problem solving, and the development of innovative solutions that can be tested, validated, and defended with evidence. The competitive format is meant to create stronger motivation and a higher level of performance than a typical class project, while also simulating the pressures and tradeoffs common in defense-oriented engineering efforts.

Funding is provided as a grant under Funding Opportunity Number BAA AFOSR 2011 03, within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category, and associated with CFDA 12.800 (Air Force Defense Research Sciences Program). Individual awards are relatively modest and aimed at supporting team-based design efforts: the award floor is $20,000 and the award ceiling is $60,000. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement stated for applicants, which can reduce barriers for universities and make participation more feasible for student-focused programs.

Eligibility is limited to institutions of higher education, including both public/state-controlled universities and private universities. The program is oriented around undergraduate university teams, so proposals would typically be expected to describe how students will be organized, mentored, and resourced to meet the challenge, as well as how the team will approach design, integration, test, and validation within the academic year timeline.

At the end of the academic year, teams compete to determine the best design. The winner is encouraged to apply for additional follow-on projects as new opportunities are announced, potentially building on the winning approach while incorporating useful elements from other teams solutions. However, the announcement makes a point of clarifying that winning the competition does not automatically guarantee additional funding. Any future funding remains subject to separate announcements and will be open to all eligible proposers under the applicable submission guidelines.

Key administrative details in the posted announcement include a posted and creation date of March 9, 2011, an original and current closing date of April 25, 2011, and an archive date of May 25, 2011. For issues accessing the full announcement electronically, the listed contact is afosr.baa@afosr.af.mil.

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