High School Design Competition
Explore. Innovate. Achieve.
High School Design is a free event that takes place annually in the fall, putting high school students' creativity, teamwork skills, technical knowledge, and abilities to the test. Each High School Design features new engineering design challenges in various engineering disciplines created by students in the Self Engineering Leadership Fellows (SELF) Program. Working as individuals or in small teams, high school students design, build, and test a project that addresses the design criteria.
High School Design is hosted by the KU School of Engineering, while SELF fellows plan and execute the event. It is a student-run day-long event, with the intent of promoting interest in engineering among high school students.
A total of $12,000 in scholarships will be awarded to the winning teams across the six engineering disciplines (Aerospace, Biomedical, Chemical, Civil, Computer Science, and Mechanical).
High School Design 2025 will take place at the University of Kansas School of Engineering on Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
Please email highschooldesign@ku.edu with questions.
High School Design Competition FAQ
If your school doesn't have an Engineering program, teams are encouraged to compete to the best of their ability and go as far in each competition as possible.
Competition Rules Packet
Please review the High School Design Competition 2025 Rules Packet prior to arriving on campus.
Registration is open!
Registration opens Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 and closes Monday, October 6, 2025.Each team member needs to register individually.