For those of you who can’t wait to get started preparing for this year’s DSDC competition, we want to inform you of a few changes coming to the competition this year!  Before you hit the ground running, be sure to check out the rules posted on the IFT website!  Here’s a quick glance at the major changes we’ll be making to the competition this year.

1. Preliminary proposals will now be limited to 3 pages instead of 5. This does not include the title page, references, the 1 page for graphic representation of the entry (flow chart, photograph, drawing, etc.), or the 1 page appendix.  This will lessen the time required for judging, allowing finalists to be notified on time!
2. Preliminary and final proposals must be submitted by 11:59 PM CST on January 15, 2015 and May 15, 2015, respectively.
3. Finalists will now be scored on a scale of 250 points, which includes the final written proposal (100), an oral presentation (100), and a roundtable discussion (50).
4. The oral session will be 15 minutes long for each team. There will be no Q&A immediately after the oral presentations, as this portion of the competition will take place during the roundtable discussion.  However, audience members will submit questions to the judges at the end of the oral portion.  Judges will review submitted questions to help facilitate the roundtable discussion.
5. Finalists will participate in a 90 minute roundtable discussion, which will involve all of the teams and judges. Members of the general public who are interested are also welcomed to view this portion of the competition.  To begin the roundtable discussion, each team will give a 2-minute “elevator pitch” of their product.  The first 60 minutes will be reserved for questions from the judges and related discussion. Even if a question is directed at one team in particular, all teams are able to respectfully participate in the discussion.  The last 30 minutes will be allotted for questions from other teams as well as audience members.

We hope that you are just as excited as we are for these new revisions to DSDC!  If you have any questions, please email the competition chair, Jaime Savitz, at iftsa.dsdc@gmail.com.  Best of luck!

(Cover Image credit: ucr.edu)