Invention Competition

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS IS MAY 30

**** IMPORTANT CHANGES ****

The following three important changes have been introduced to the Invention Competition, which will take precedence over the documents in the Specific Requirements section:

First: the ARPA Institute Invention Competition Awards will be called The Adrin Gharakhani Awards, in honor of our long-time Vice President.”

  1. First prize is $5,000 and second prize is $1,000. There will not be 3rd and 4th winners this year.
  2.  The competition will be in two phases this year:
    • PHASE I: Submit one page Executive Summary of the invention by the end of the day on May 30.  You may also include an additional page of graphics/illustration if it will help improve the understanding of the underlying innovation. Please refer to the document in the Specific Requirements section for ideas/hints on what to address/include in the summary.
    • PHASE II: Phase I submissions will be reviewed by a panel of experts and select strong candidates identified for consideration during Phase II. Candidate applicants will then be contacted by ARPA Institute with a list of recommendations (provided by the panel of experts) for improving the quality of their full proposal, to be submitted by the end of the day on August 31. The formatting details of the full proposal are given in the Specific Requirements section.

Program Objectives: The ARPA Institute Invention Competition for Young Scientists is a contest designed to encourage young scientists active in science, engineering, mathematics, technology and creative invention, while stimulating their problem-solving abilities. This prestigious challenge also recognizes the productive relationship among researchers and their mentors that is essential to economic growth and leadership.

Organizer: ARPA Institute of Los Angeles, California, USA.

Sponsors: The Ministry of Education & Science of Armenia, and the ARPA Institute.

General Requirements: The invention, a reduced-to-practice idea or workable model, must be the work of a scientist or team of maximum 4 scientists, or a team with their university advisor. If it is a machine, it must be operable. If it is a chemical, it must be complete with evidence of successful application of the idea. If it is a new plant, color photographs or slides must be included in the submission. If a new or original ornamental design for an article of manufacture is submitted, the entire design must be included in the application. In addition, the invention should be reproducible and should have potential in becoming a product. The entry must be the original idea and work product of the young scientist or scientist/advisor team, and may not have been (1) made available to the public as a commercial product or process or (2) been patented or published more than 1 year prior to the date of submission to the competition. The entry submitted must be in Armenian or English.

Specific Requirements: For the details of the application process, including formatting requirements, download either of the following PDF files: Armenian or English

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION

  1. Go to http://cyberchairpro.borbala.com/arpapapers/submit/ to submit your PDF file.
  2.  If you are submitting your application for the first time click on “Initial submission”. If you need to check/update your application click on “Check and/or update your submission”.
  3.  Enter the title of your submission in the first row.
  4.  Enter the necessary information for each member of the team in the application. The “submitter” is the team leader in the application.
  5.  Click on one of the buttons indicating the “Main Topic” of your application.
  6.  Type in the Abstract of the submission in the section titled “Abstract+Keywords”. You can copy and paste your abstract directly from your Word Document. Suggest a few keywords that best describe the capability you think the judges must have to evaluate your application fairly.
  7.  Submit your application in PDF format using the button “Choose File”, which lets you select the file from your computer.
  8.  Skip the section on Postscript files.
  9.  Enter the number of pages in your application (the Maximum is 15, not 10)
  10.  Make sure you press the Submit button after you have entered all the above information. Without this action your application will not be submitted.