Are you:
- A Canadian University student working on a group capstone project or thesis?
- A student group or design team?
Then take part in the INCOSE Canada’s student competition!
We will:
- Connect you with systems engineering mentors who may help you on your journey
- Offer the following prizes which may be used to offset part of the cost of your project, or used to attend conferences to present your work (and add to your CV!)
Team Submissions
| First Place | Second Place | Third Place |
| $3000 CAD | $1500 CAD | Free INCOSE Registration |
Competition Format
INCOSE Canada will organize 3 online events to support selected teams in applying Systems Engineering to their projects:
- Onboarding Session and Intro to Systems Engineering: Nov 2025
- Mentorship Session 1: Dec 2025
- Mentorship Session 2: Feb 2026
Teams will be asked to submit a 2-page narrative summary highlighting a specific example of their approach to adopting systems engineering for their project, and lessons you learned from their experience.
A tentative rubric is provided. The final rubric will be provided later to successful applicants.
The selection committee will select awardees based on their performance on the narrative summary.
Eligibility Criteria
To take part in the competition, your team needs to meet all the requirements below:
- Affiliation with a Canadian Post-secondary institution.
- Work as a group (more than one person) on a project that uses or related to Systems Engineering tools and knowledge. Eligible projects include but are not limited to:
- National or international competitions
- Design projects
- Capstone projects
- Thesis projects
- Project should be supervised by a Faculty Member or the Team should have a Faculty advisor.
Timeline
Applications Open: 1 April 2025
Applications Close: 20 Oct 2025
Notification of Acceptance of Project: 1 Nov 2025
Events:
- Onboarding Session and Intro to Systems Engineering: Nov 2025
- Mentorship Session 1: Dec 2025
- Mentorship Session 2: Feb 2026
Lessons Learned Document Submission Deadline: 1 March 2026
Award Ceremony: 1 April 2026
How to Apply?
Share your interest by completing this form before 20 October 2025.
Do not include confidential information regarding your project, particularly information that may be protected by an NDA or IP agreement. The information you share should provide a very high level overview for the competition organizers. The competition is focused on the application of systems engineering and lessons learned in that area, not the technology or detailed domain knowledge and as such access to technical details of your project is not expected.
You will be asked to share the title of your project, your faculty advisor, and a short description of the project. This information will be used to assess whether Systems Engineering is applicable and to screen submissions.