The SHPE Student Chapter Design Contest was developed to stimulate the creative intellect and entrepreneurial spirit of SHPE Student Chapter members, to develop technical presentation skills, and to engender a team environment and instill cooperation essential in a design project. This competition will demonstrate to industry the technical and business capabilities of SHPE engineering and science student chapter members and illustrate that an idea need not be expensive to design and build to be successful.

The Student Chapter Design Contest is open to all official SHPE student chapters. The submitted design must be a commercially marketable product that is a benefit to mankind and improves the quality of life. This design shall not be a duplicate of a currently existing commercial product, but can be an improvement to a currently existing commercial product.

The 2001 winning chapters were:

• First Place: George Washington University
  "Greek Laser Beam"
  
  
• Second Place: Univeristy of Colorado, Boulder
  "Smoke Away"
  
  
• Third Place: Carnegie Mellon University
  "SiliconValet"
  
  
• Fourth Place: University of California, Irvine
  "CyberWatch"
  
  
• Fifth Place: University of Southern California
  "Web-based Organizational Database System"

The 2002 Design Contest will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in conjunction with the SHPE 24th Annual National Technical and Career Conference.