IoT Design Competition

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The IoT Design Competition is an annual innovation challenge hosted by the IoT Students Club at the University of Florida in collaboration with the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World. Now in its fourth year, this competition invites students to design and develop intelligent, connected systems that address real-world problems using the Internet of Things (IoT).

About This Year’s Competition

The Fall 2025 competition is centered around the theme “Secure and Smart”, encouraging participants to develop solutions that combine advanced sensing, automation, or data-driven insights with strong cybersecurity and system resilience. Projects may focus on any domain — including public safety, healthcare, infrastructure, energy, or the environment — as long as they creatively integrate IoT technologies to deliver reliable, secure, and impactful outcomes.

Participants will form teams of 2 to 4 students and may submit a project in either the hardware or software track. Projects in each track will be evaluated independently by a panel of judges, based on criteria such as innovation, technical complexity, usability, scalability, and real-world impact.

The competition is open to all currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students at universities and colleges across the state of Florida. Teams are required to submit a short demo video and a one-page technical architecture summary outlining the design, implementation, and purpose of their solution.

Live judging will take place during the Demos & Judging sessions at the Warren B. Nelms IoT Conference (December 4-5, 2025 at University of Florida). Attendance is mandatory for finalists during the conference to be eligible for awards and final evaluation.

Registration

Competition Registration is now closed.

Competition Brochure & Guidelines