Be Part of the Growing Excitement!

Join Us!

• A contest for students as part of the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) Conference May 12-15, 2026, in Toronto, Canada.
• Teams of students and faculty develop models or mockups of new safety systems.
• Top 6 teams present at ESV in Toronto.

How Do I Enter?

• Create a team with 2-5 undergrad/grad students and a faculty advisor.
• Produce an idea for one of the categories listed below.
• Email your abstract to: SSTDC@dot.gov.

Why Should I Enter?

• U.S. teams with accepted abstracts receive $4,000 to offset design costs.
• This is an opportunity to show the industry your talents and showcase your safety ideas.
• Top 6 teams receive international recognition and meet safety professionals in government and industry at the ESV conference in Toronto.

Important Dates

• 8/15/25: Abstract due
• 8/19/25: Abstract acceptance notification sent
• 1/21/26-1/23/26: Regional design evaluation
• 2/6/26: International finalists notified
• 5/12/26: Oral presentation by international finalists in Toronto
• 5/15/26: 1st place winner and runner-up recognition at closing ceremony

Competition Format

How the Competition Works

Teams consisting of university-level seniors and/or graduate students, guided by one faculty advisor, submit a project addressing a global vehicle safety research priority.

The competition is organized into three tiers:

1. Written abstracts: Abstracts must clearly outline the current safety need and the proposed safety technology design solution. Entries are judged within three geographic regions: North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. Each region evaluates the submitted abstracts and selects up to six teams to participate in their regional competition. 
2. Regional Competitions: Teams selected to participate in their regional competition develop a functional scale or life-size model of their proposed vehicle-based technology and present their results in a written report and regional demonstration. A panel of safety experts evaluates the designs and selects up to three finalist teams per region to advance to the international finals held at the ESV conference. 
3. International Competition: The three finalist teams from each region compete for top honors at the 28th ESV Conference in Toronto, Canada, where their prototype devices will be on display in the exhibition hall. An international panel of vehicle safety experts will select one first-place team and one runner-up , both of whom will receive an award and international recognition for their achievements.

Why Students Should Participate in the ESV SSTDC

The ESV SSTDC gives young scholars from around the world an exciting opportunity to design, build, and demonstrate a conceptual scale model of a novel vehicle safety technology. Participating in this competition is not only a valuable experience for collegiate students to compete in, but a significant achievement in a student's academic journey - one they can be proud of long after the conference is over. Additionally, students have an opportunity to network with fellow students, government representatives, and industry experts during the 28th ESV Conference, which features informative presentations and a rich program of content.

Key Dates

Written Abstracts

• The call for abstracts will open on February 14, 2025.
• The abstract submission deadline is August 15, 2025. 
• Teams will be notified by September 19, 2025, whether their project has been selected to advance in the competition.

Regional Competition

• Presentations will take place January 21-23, 2026, at the team's respective academic institution or virtually.
• Teams will be notified by February 6, 2026 regarding their advancement in the competition. 
• The final written report deadline is March 6, 2026.

International Finals

• The international finals will occur at the 28th ESV Conference in Toronto, Canada, from May 12-15, 2026. Final presentations will be judged, and winners will be announced and awarded.  

Eligibility and Guidelines

The Student Safety Technology Design Competition (SSTDC) is open to teams consisting of a maximum of 6 university-level seniors and/or graduate students, guided by one faculty advisor within an ESV member country.  While multiple entries from the same academic institution are permissible, each team must be led by a unique faculty advisor, and students may only participate as a member of one team. Graduate students exclude post-docs, however, post-docs may serve as a team advisor.

General Guidelines for the SSTDC

• Identify an important safety problem and develop a concept for a novel vehicle-based technology to address this safety problem. Clearly detail both the problem and concept design in your abstract. 
• If your abstract is accepted for the regional competition, create a functional scale or life-size model of the proposed vehicle-based technology. Document the design development and present the results via a report and regional demonstration. 
• Teams selected to participate in the final international judging at the ESV conference will present their model at an exhibit hall booth and present their work at the conference.

Requirements

Each team must meet the following requirements: 

Written Abstracts 

Abstracts must be written in English and:

• Contain a title, a vehicle safety category, and 300 words maximum.
• Outline a vehicle safety problem.
• Clearly identify the device or system that the team will build to address the safety problem outlined.
• Explain briefly how adoption of such a device or system could reduce the number of crashes, mitigate injuries, and/or prevent fatalities if deployed in vehicles and integrated into real-world operation.
• Explain how the proposed device or system introduces an innovative approach to the identified vehicle safety problem and describe how it differs from or improves upon existing technologies in the field.
• Be submitted via e-mail to SSTDC@dot.gov no later than August 15, 2025, Eastern Time.

Only one entry per team: Multiple entries under different competition categories from the same team will not be accepted.

Regional Competitions

Judging for each team's project will take place at the team's respective academic institution or via web conference January 21-23, 2026. Judges will review presentations of the functional models and review the written reports. 

• Team reports must be submitted in English and no more than 3,000 words.
• In addition to explaining the design, the report must include:
  • the percentage of the passenger fleet that could potentially use the proposed design.
  • estimated safety benefits of the design in terms of lives saved or crashes prevented. 
• Team reports must also include a budget summary as an appendix, containing a categorical summary of all design and prototype costs (not to exceed USD $4,000) and a breakdown of overall funding from all sources. 
• Final reports must be submitted via email to SSTDC@dot.gov by March 6, 2026, Eastern Time.

Regional Advancement to Finals 

• Regional Selection: Each region (Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America) will evaluate submitted abstracts and select up to six teams to compete in their regional competitions. 
• Finalist Selection:
  • General Selection: The top three teams from each region will advance to the international finals.
  • Host Country Guarantee: To ensure host country representation, if no team from the host country ranks among the top three in its region, an additional spot will be created for the highest-ranking host country team, provided the project meets competitive standards.
  • Total Finalist Count: Recognizing the host-country guarantee rule, the total number of finalists could be up to 10 teams, with up to 4 teams from the host country’s region. If a host country team naturally ranks in the top three, no additional slot will be added and the finalist count will be 9.

International Competition

Final presentations will occur at the 28th ESV conference in Toronto, Canada, from May 12-15, 2026. Teams present their models to an international panel of judges during a variety of conference presentations, which may include:

• A 5-minute 'elevator pitch'.
• A 15-minute technical presentation that shall include a discussion of the safety problem being addressed, description of the countermeasures envisioned, and potential safety benefits of the proposed design.
• A panel of judges evaluating each team’s physical prototype at their booths. Teams will have 10-minutes to present and demonstrate their functional model. 
• Final reports must be submitted via e-mail to SSTDC@dot.gov no later than March 6, 2026, Eastern Time.

Financial Assistance & Corporate Sponsorship

• Financial assistance for U.S. teams: Each team selected to compete in the North American regional competition from the United States will be awarded up to USD $4,000 from NHTSA to help offset the costs involved in its design efforts.
• Financial assistance for international teams: Each team selected to compete in regional competitions from outside the United States should contact their regional coordinators to determine if financial assistance is available. If available, this assistance should not exceed the equivalent of USD $4,000 per team.

Although corporate sponsorship is not a requirement, all teams are encouraged to seek corporate sponsors to help offset the costs of design efforts and/or travel expenses.

• Corporate sponsorship is limited to the equivalent of USD $4,000 per team for design efforts. 
• Additional funding may be secured for the purpose of travel.

Teams must submit a detailed budget in their final report, including sponsorship and any financial assistance received.

For international finalist teams, conference registration fees will be waived for a maximum of two team members from each team selected to compete at the ESV conference. Booth space fees will also be waived for each team. 

Vehicle Safety Categories

With 12 competition categories to select from, students may consider a broad range of technical topics that span current vehicle safety priorities throughout the world. Each student design must address a real-world vehicle safety problem from one of the following competition categories:

1. Automated Driving Systems
   New concepts associated with the introduction of Automated Driving Systems (SAE Automation Levels 3-5). For example: driver interface concepts to maintain situational awareness, strategies for the engagement/disengagement of automation, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, external vehicle signaling, and automated detection and management of conditions that require driver decision (e.g., 4 way stop, highway ingress/egress, and traffic flow). 
2. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
   New technologies for driver assistance in critical situations (SAE Automation Levels 0-2), For example: crash warning systems, crash mitigation systems, crash prevention systems, and/or new sensors which could provide inputs to such mitigation or prevention systems. 
3. Vehicle Electronics Safety and Cybersecurity
   Innovations in electronics systems safety. For example: novel approaches to system software test and validation, diagnostics and prognostics for intelligent vehicle health management, fail-safe and fail-operational mechanisms, detection and prevention of unauthorized access or malicious attacks, capturing data from unauthorized access or malicious attacks to enable forensic examination, and alerting the driver to vehicle limitations due to attacks. 
4. Electric Vehicle Safety
   New system concepts in electric vehicles, For example: preventing and detecting thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries and communicating safety information unique to electric vehicles. 
5. Driver’s Vision 
   Innovative vision systems to improve visibility and conspicuity to detect other vehicles, people, objects, and other hazards in the traffic environment, etc. For example: vehicle design improvement to eliminate blind zones, surround-view cameras to detect vulnerable road users. 
6. Occupant Monitoring
   Detection systems that look at the occupant compartment to detect and understand the driver and passengers. For example: driver monitoring, restraints optimization, unattended child detection, and out of position air bag suppression. 
7. Distraction Prevention and Mitigation
   New technologies to lessen driver distraction and minimize workload. For example: methods to detect distracted drivers, interfaces to influence drivers' distracting behaviors, methods to adjust displays based on workload, and novel in-vehicle systems that can detect cell phone use and provide a countermeasure. 
8. Impaired Driving Countermeasures
   Innovative systems to reduce impaired driving. For example, ignition interlocks and passive drug/alcohol sensors. 
9. Crash Compatibility
   Improved protection for occupants in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions. For example: use of new energy-absorbing structures, improving geometric alignment, optimizing the energy absorption during crash, improvement in intrusion caused by override or underride, and adaptive/active bumper heights. 
10. Restraint System Enhancement
    Systems minimizing injuries to vehicle occupants during a crash. For example: vehicle interior design enhancements to seat belts, air bags, and head restraints; integration of pre-crash sensors to optimize restraint performance; and occupant position sensors. 
11. Dummy Design and Instrumentation
    Innovation in crash test dummy development or application. For example: improvements in dummy bio fidelity, durability, instrumentation and/or analytical techniques to address future safety needs for vehicle design, testing, and restraint system development. 
12. Vulnerable Road Users (e.g., Pedestrians and Cyclists) Crash Avoidance or Injury Mitigation
    Innovation in technologies to sense and/or avoid VRUs in the vehicle's travel path. Redesign of passenger vehicle structures or deployable devices to minimize pedestrian/pedal cyclist injuries. 
13. Post-Crash Safety
    Vehicle and triage enhancements that improve post-crash injury mitigation and treatment. For example: automated crash notification, crash severity prediction, minimizing fuel leakage, fire mitigation, advanced bystander care, and automated crash scene measurement and reporting.

Scoring Criteria and Awards

Abstract Scoring Criteria

• Potential impact on safety problem being addressed (30 points)
• Originality (25 points)
• Practicability of creating a functional scale model (25 points)
• Supporting details, quality, technical depth (20 points)

Total points: 100

Regional and Final Competition Scoring Criteria 

For both the regional and international final competitions, judges will award points based on five criteria:

1. Potential impact on safety problem being addressed (40 points)
   1. Did the team address a safety problem?
   2. How did the team test and evaluate its system?
   3. What metrics did the team use?
   4. What are the results of the testing?
   5. Are conclusions presented clearly?
   6. What potential or expected effects will the system have on traffic safety? 
2. Originality (20 points) 
3. Functional scale model, physical presentation (20 points) 
4. Oral presentation (10 points) 
5. Supporting details, quality, thoroughness, technical depth (10 points)

Total points: 100

AWARDS

Winning teams will be presented with a plaque by representatives from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation, and/or representatives from Transport Canada during the conference in Toronto.

• First Place: Award plaque and recognition at the 28th ESV Conference, in the final program, and on NHTSA's ESV website. 
• Runner-up: Award plaque and recognition at the 28th ESV Conference, in the final program, and on NHTSA's ESV website.

Regions and Coordinators

There are three competition regions based on ESV member countries: Asia-Pacific (including Japan, Korea, and Australia), Europe, and North America (including Canada and the United States). The list of the Regional Coordinators and their contact information is provided below:

Asia-Pacific

Masashi Yukawa
Manager, Global Development / Exposition
Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc.
10-2 Gobancho, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 102-0076, Japan
E-mail: sstdc@jsae.or.jp

Younghan Youn
Korea University of Technology and Education
Engineering Professor
307 Gajun-ri, Byungchum-myun, Cheonan, Chungnam, Korea 330-807
Phone + 82 415-601-136 Fax +82 415-601-360
Email: yhyoun@koreatech.ac.kr

Europe

Bernd Lorenz
Head of Section F2 - Passive Vehicle Safety, Biomechanics
Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt)
Bruederstraße 53, D-51427 Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Phone +49 2204 43-5200, Fax +49 2204 43-5250
Email: lorenz@bast.de

Peter Striekwold
Special Advisor to the Board, RDW
P.O. Box 777, 2700 AT Zoetermeer
The Netherlands
Phone +31 61 505 44 65, Fax +31 79 345 80 411
Email: pstriekwold@rdw.nl

North America

Whitney Tatem
Coordinator for the United States, NHTSA
ESV Student Competition Organizer
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20590 USA
Email: sstdc@dot.gov

Benoit Anctil
Coordinator for Canada, Transport Canada
330 Sparks Street, Place de Ville, Tower C
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5
Email: benoit.anctil@tc.gc.ca