Saul Walker Student Design Competition

The AES Student Design Competition is an opportunity for aspiring undergraduate and graduate hardware and software engineers to participate in a worldwide contest and gain recognition for their hard work, technical creativity and ingenuity. If you wish to participate as an individual or a group, a supervising professor or advisor must recommend your project to represent your school.

Students from both audio and non-audio backgrounds are encouraged to submit entries. Few restrictions are placed on the nature of the projects, but designs must be for use with audio. Examples include loudspeaker design, DSP plug-ins, analog hardware, signal analysis tools, mobile applications, sound synthesis devices, and workflow solutions. Products should represent new, original ideas implemented in working-model prototypes.

It is important to note that multiple students or groups from a school can submit a project. Students who are not competing are strongly encouraged to attend the Student Design Competition Exhibition. This is a learning opportunity for all students through feedback, constructive criticism, and conversation.

To participate in the AES Design Competition, you must:

1. Be a current Student Member of the Audio Engineering Society. Join at aes.org/join. Please note that fees vary by region.
2. Design and construct the project while you are a student affiliated with a college audio, software design, or engineering program.
3. Be approved by your faculty advisor as the sole representative/group for your project.
4. Submit your project description electronically according to the submission guidelines prior to the deadline.

Multiple entries (each a different project) from the same school/college/university are allowed.

If a project is designed by a team of students all team members must, at minimum, also be enrolled students affiliated with a university audio program, which will be verified through the respective faculty advisers. To present as a team all team members must meet the complete eligibility criteria. Violation of these rules will result in disqualification. Late entries will not be accepted under any circumstance.

Once a project is submitted to an AES Student Design Competition, it is disqualified from future competitions. This also means submitting revised or modified designs of a previously submitted project is prohibited. Additionally, the submission has to be conceived as a student project. It must not have been developed with the goal of being marketed as a commercial product in affiliation with a company providing funding.

March 1, 2026             Entries Open

May 1, 2026                Entries Close

May 10, 2026              Finalists Announced

May 28-30, 2026        Judging (at AES Europe Convention

May 30^th, 2026            Winners Announced (at AES Europe Convention)

Prior to the AES Convention, project descriptions are read by members of the AES Education Committee and judges. They will examine the submitter’s work to ensure all submission guidelines are followed, and all work is original. Over the following weeks, judges will have the opportunity to form preliminary evaluations of each project.

Approved projects will then compete in the Student Design Competition.

In-person finalists must attend the convention and present their designs in person (unless this is logistically impossible due the nature of the project, and special permission to waive this requirement is granted by the competition director). Finalists will participate in a 15 minute in-person Q&A and evaluation session with the judges during the competition session.

For online submissions finalists must participate in a live Zoom meeting which consists of a 15 minute evaluation and Q&A with the judges, during the time scheduled for the event on the convention program.

Finalists are strongly encouraged to prepare answers regarding design details and the data provided in their e-brief.

Projects will be judged on the basis of originality, creativity, usability and interface design, and context within currently available technology. Make sure your design is new, exciting, and practical!

By entering the competition, finalists agree to have video content and their projects showcased for future promotion of the student design competition.

1)    Create a 4-8 page write up describing your project and communicating your design to the judges. You may use any combination of diagrams, schematics, code blocks, and text. Save your file as “AESmembernumber_lastname_SDC.pdf”. For example. “12345_johnson_SDC.pdf”.

2)    Templates in both Latex and Word are provided .

3)    Visit the Saul Walker Student Design Competition Online Submission Form to upload your formal submission and project materials

4)  Create a video presentation about your project, and submit a link to a publicly accessible YouTube video adhering to the following guidelines:

a.    Length: 3-5 Minutes

b.    Quality: as high as possible, minimum 480SD

c.    It can be any combination of screen recording, video, and graphics as long as:

                                               i.         The intent of your design is clearly conveyed

                                             ii.         The design is shown in operation and results are demonstrated

                                            iii.         All important design details are covered

                                            iv.         All video is your own and does not infringe on any copyright

d.    Videos must remain accessible up to the end of the 2026 AES Europe Convention.

e.    By entering the competition, you agree to let AES use your submission materials, including the video, as educational resources and to promote future competitions.  

Judges may recognize outstanding projects by conferring merit awards of Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention. Any combination of awards is permitted. Winners and prizes will be announced in a session on the last day of the convention.

The selection of prizes and awards will vary based on the generosity and intentions of competition sponsors.

Prize distribution shall occur at the discretion of the Judges and AES Education Vice Chair.

• Shortlisted contestants/teams will be invited to showcase their projects at subsequent AES conventions
• The final format of the showcase will be announced at least 1 month before the convention
• Authors will be encouraged and offered support for submitting their project for publication as an Engineering Brief paper at AES Conventions

Please direct all questions, comments & concerns to christoph.thompson@aes.org