Student Registration
If you win first place in your category at your regional competition, your project will be automatically registered for the state competition. Registration is handled for you by your regional director. You should receive a winner's letter from your regional director that has vital information for you. Please notify your REGIONAL DIRECTOR if you did not receive a winner's letter, or have questions about your placement in the state competition.
Only projects from RECOGNIZED regions will be allowed to participate in the state-level Technology Competition. All regions must be registered with GaSTC prior to submission of entries. If your area is interested in being recognized as a new region, contact the director, Tom Lamb (tom.lamb@gastc.org).
Preparing Your Project
Students are encouraged to make modifications and improvements on their project in between the regional competition and the state competition, though the project must remain generally unchanged. The project will be judged under the original category and cannot be changed to a different category.
Any non-student-created materials must be documented as “public domain and available for free use” or the student must receive permission or have paid to use it - and must submit evidence of this.
Be sure to check the Category page for your project for any important information and judging rubrics. Be sure to properly document (citation and permission where applicable) any non-original work included in the final project.
Getting to the Competition
You can find information about how to get there on our Location page. Information about things to do will be posted on our Updates page.
You must bring a device and any peripherals that you need to present your project. You also need to bring any written permission for materials in your project that you did not produce yourself (photos, artwork, music, video, etc.).
All judge times will be posted here no later than five days prior to the event and you will receive an e-mail with your judge time. You should plan to arrive to check in at least an hour before your assigned judge time OR by 12:00 p.m., whichever is sooner. If you miss your judge time, there is no guarantee that there will be an empty slot for you to move into.
When you arrive at the Competition, check in at the registration table where you will receive your materials. You need to be in the area of judging no later than 30 minutes before your judging time.
Setting Up Your Project
After check-in, students will be escorted by a staff member to the judging area at the correct time. Students will need to be able to set up their projects on their own. Because judge rooms are used multiple times, equipment should be removed at the end of the judging period. No parents or teachers are allowed in the judging area.
Any contestant identified as interfering with another participant’s project will be disqualified.
Judging Rules and Procedures
Teams of judges will interview each participant for no more than 15 minutes and see the project. If a project (video, slideshow, presentation, etc.) is longer than about five minutes, the judges will view just a portion of the project. The judges use a rubric guide from the category page and suggested questions to evaluate each project. After completing the judging of all projects in a grade/category, the judges will rank the projects and first-place, second-place, and third-place winners will be awarded. All decisions of the judges are final, and the GASTC staff do not change judging results.
Students MUST present their projects in person at the Competition. Students unable to present their projects, even due to illness, may NOT use "proxies" unless they are part of the original, registered team representing a project.
Awards Ceremonies
You only need to be at the Tech Competition from an hour before your judge time until after your project is judged. If you check in more than an hour before your assigned judge time, you may leave before judging, but be sure that you are back in time to set up and be ready for judging. If you are staying for the awards ceremony, you may leave after judging and return for the awards. You and your parents may use your free time to see the attractions.
Awards are split up into multiple ceremonies for space and efficiency. When judge times are posted, you will be able to see your award ceremony time along with your judging time. Award ceremony times will also be listed on the student name badges received at check-in.
