It feels like just yesterday we were hosting the 2020 Finals Live Stream, but here we are over a month later and preparing to announce the 2021 Competition! It is always a great feeling when you prepare to announce something new, and I personally am brimming with excitement thinking about the amazing opportunities this next year will provide. 

In the first place, we are incredibly blown away that this will be the tenth year of the Clean Tech Competition! Over the last decade, the need for sustainable and green technology has become more necessary than ever. The issues brought on by anthropogenic climate change have increased tenfold. Currently in the United States, our western states are burning with an intensity never seen before. In the southern areas of our country, we are in the middle of an intense hurricane season. In the northeast, it looks as if another dry and warm winter season is incoming. And this is in only our small corner of the world. 

We are looking for your ingenious solutions to help us conserve the resources we have and hopefully help prevent the rapidly accelerating issues their loss poses. Help us make the tenth year our best one yet and another strong showing of hope for our future!

Another whirlwind first round is over, and we have 20 new Finalist Teams! It seems like just yesterday we were opening registration, and only this morning a pandemic threw us a bigger curve ball than we could ever imagine.  We are incredibly excited to move on towards our Finals event which will be viewable to anyone who wants to join! Science is something to be shared among everyone, and we felt that this was the best way we could contribute to that mentality. Once again congratulations to our Finalists, Semi-Finalists, and all who were able to persevere and submit their projects! 

Normally, when Teams are presenting their research and prototype to the judges they are in a small room. It is just them, the judges, their poster and prototype as they enter the Final stages of the Competition. Unfortunately this year the judges and Teams will be hundreds or thousands of miles apart, interacting through a webcam and screen. Not the intimate experience that we always strive for, but in times like these you find exciting new ways to utilize what you have!

For the 2020 Spellman HV Clean Tech Competition Finals, the Competition has decided that we will be live streaming each judging presentation for all to witness! More information will be coming soon, but for now mark off Thursday August 6, 2020 on your calendar as the date of our Virtual Finals that you can watch! 

The old saying “make lemonade out of lemons” could not be better applied than here. Two months ago we had a whole host of questions on how the event would run this year. Now we still have questions, but they are focused on exciting new pathways! Science is all about sharing and openness, and in a digital age we are able to take this to a whole new level. We hope you can join us for this one-of-a-kind event from any corner of the globe! 

After delays and adjustments in the face of a global pandemic, we have begun our judging! Last week hundreds of paper submissions were sent to dozens of engineers, professors and researchers across the globe to be scored. From here, we will narrow it down to our top Teams! First on June 5th we will be announcing our semi-finalists, so keep an eye on your email and our social media! Then that very next Monday, our Finalists will be announced on June 8th! These top 20 Teams will compete in our first ever Virtual Finals in early August. The Competition date will be announced very soon, that I promise you!

Presenting your research to a Team of judges is already a challenge. You may know your work better than anyone, but sharing that knowledge can often be difficult! Now, Teams will need to overcome the added challenge of doing so in a virtual format over video. Our 2020 Competitors have all had to overcome a disrupted research plan, so hats off to each and every one of them!

Every year, Teams from across the globe gather at the Spellman HV Clean Tech Finals. They bring unique ideas from a wide variety of inspiration and purpose, competing against their peers in pursuit of a common goal: a sustainable future for all. For the past 8 years, this has been one of the highlights of everyone involved with the Competition. Hearing Competitors discuss their projects with the public and watching them talk about their research with each other shows what this competition is truly about: sharing ideas to make the world better for all. 

It saddens us to have to cancel this culminating event for so many student scientists. But we are extremely excited to be able to continue in a virtual format! So many academic events have been canceled this year, and we are incredibly happy to be able to continue to provide this opportunity! More information on how this will all work will be coming soon, so keep an eye out on our website and social media for more exciting news!

Finally, 2021 is the 10 year anniversary of the Clean Tech Competition, so we will see you then!

Registration opened 6 months ago, but now it is almost closed! We are racing towards the deadline to register Teams and submit papers, with each week seeming  quicker than the last! Are you ready for the next round of the 2020 Spellman Clean Tech Competition?!? I know I am!

For me as the administrator, the past several months, while busy, have still moved with a certain lumbering speed. It is a walk that has a purpose, but it is far off so the effort is a steady stream of work. However the next couple months are the point where the tributaries converge, and that stream grows into a rushing river that moves full steam ahead no matter what is in its path. This is the point where all the pieces fall into place. The point were we determine this years top Teams! 

So make sure you are wrapping up those papers (hopefully not just starting them!), proof read, submit, and then you are done until we announce our semi-finalists on June 5! Well, done with work on THIS project that is. I am sure many of you are already working on some new research project, or fantasizing about your next world changing design. And that is exactly what we want, for your intrigue and inquisitiveness not to end with your research here. Thats how we make the world a better place, right? 

The past few months have been a tumultuous time for everyone. The current pandemic situation is unprecedented in modern human history in its scale of impact on our world, and this upheaval has also influenced many of the projects you all are working on. This, combined with the safety concerns related to gathering a group of individuals from across the globe, has led the Competition to decide to postpone our Finals event, and delay our timeline a bit. We hope this allows you to feel more confident in your work. To feel better about your results. To only submit the very best you have to offer, because we would expect nothing less!

The new dates are as follows:

• Registration Ends – Friday, May 8
• Papers Due – Wednesday, May 13
• Semi-finalist announcement – Friday, June 5
• Finalist Announcement – Monday, June 8
• Finals – Early August

We are working hard to get a new Finals date lined up, while also keeping a close eye on the safety recommendations that factor in to such a decision. These times are strange, but we will continue to do all we can to ensure the Competition goes on!