Thank you for choosing to participate in the JETS/AbilityOne National Engineering Design Challenge and use your time and talents to give students a learning experience unlike any other. As the driving force in helping students make decisions about their academic and professional futures, you have made an excellent choice in bringing classroom learning to life through the NEDC.
Your Task…
To design an assistive technology (at) device that enables a person with a severe disability to improve their job performance, increase their productivity on their job and/or allow them to obtain a job that they previously were unable to attain.
Why?
Finding a job that is personally and professionally rewarding can be a challenge for anyone. For a person with a severe disability, obtaining satisfying employment can be even more challenging due to workplace accessibly constraints and deeply ingrained societal attitudes about disabilities. These issues create additional barriers to obtaining employment and have resulted in an unemployment rate of nearly 70%, for individuals with severe disabilities — this unemployment rate has been consistent for years, regardless of the economy!
Eligibility
All students in grades 9-12 are eligible to compete in the NEDC. Students can be from high schools—public, private, home schools—youth groups or clubs (math, chess, physics) and organizations (Boy/Girl Scouts, 4-H, FIRST, Junior Achievement, etc )
Students must form teams and team members must be from the same school or group.
Team members must be in grades 9-12.
Teams outside the U.S.A. may participate but are not eligible for the Semi-Finals, National Finals Competition or scholarships.
A team can be any number of students, however JETS recommends teams of five to twenty.
National Finalist teams may only consist of 5 presenting team members. If teams wish to include additional "supporting members", they may but only five members and one coach will receive expenses paid if selected as a Finalist.
All teams must have one adult who functions as the team Coach.
An individual may coach more than one team.
The coach may be a high school faculty member or other qualified person appointed by the school or group.
The coach must be at least 21 years old by August 31, 2008.
The coach must chaperone the team to the National Finals competition if the team is selected.
Additional Rules
Each team shall present only one solution to the problem.
The device must be an original design.
The prototype device must be fully operational.
The device must be safe to operate.
Judges may represent the engineering profession and experts in disability workplace issues.
Judges’ decisions are final.
Semi-Finalists will be determined by the Internet Scavenger Hunt and Final Report.
National Finalist teams will be selected based on their Semi-Final presentation.
The Semi-Finals round will viewed and judged online.
The National Finals Competition will be held in Washington, DC on February 26, 2009.
Scholarship applications will be reviewed on a first come, first served basis.
Forms must be submitted by the December 10, 2008 deadline to be eligible for awards.
All submittal forms can be found online and are available once your team registers. Submissions will only be accepted through the online forms.
Only one Internet Scavenger Hunt submission may be entered and will be judged per team.
NOTE: Teams are encouraged to work with a technical mentor (i.e., engineer, expert in disability awareness). Technical mentors work with teams in an advisory capacity only; they do not physically assist the students in solving the problem its.
