Participation in the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair is contingent upon abiding by the rules stated below: 

• SSEF is open to all (Singaporeans, PRs and foreigners) secondary and pre-university students studying in Singapore schools (not inclusive of International schools) and who are between the ages of 15 and 20 years as of 1 May 2020. Shortlisted applicants from the pre-judging round will participate in the SSEF final judging round.
• Projects for SSEF can be submitted either as an individual or a team project. Each SSEF team must comprise not more than three members.
• Only one project (individual or team) can be submitted per student. Students that submit more than one project may be disqualified from the competition.
• Interested applicants must successfully complete the online registration by 1 Dec 2019 for their projects to be considered in the entry of the competition. Late online registrations will not be entertained. 
• As SSEF is an Affiliated Fair of ISEF, it is necessary for SSEF participants to familiarise themselves with the ISEF International Rules and Guidelines as those rules are applicable to SSEF as well.
• Top winners of SSEF who are chosen to represent Singapore in the ISEF must be Singaporeans or PRs.

Participation in A*STAR Talent Search (ATS) is contingent upon abiding by the rules stated below:

• A*STAR Talent Search (ATS) is open to secondary school and pre-university students who are Singaporeans or PRs between the ages of 15 and 20 years as of 1 May 2020.
• All participants will be judged as an individual and not as a team as there is no team award for ATS. For each winning team SSEF project, only one member can participate in ATS. Please refer to ATS website for more information.

For a research project to be eligible for SSEF and ATS, only research work conducted between 1 Jan 2019 and 31 Dec 2019 should be reported. 

The timeline for registration and submission of projects is provided below for reference:

Project entries without online registration will not be considered for the fair. Late entries will not be entertained.

• All participants are required to complete the form here.
• Participants who are entering for the Junior Scientist, are required to complete the form here.
• Only one form is required per project for participation in both SSEF and ATS. No additional entry form is required for ATS.

As SSEF is an Affiliated Fair of ISEF, all project entries must be accompanied by the relevant ISEF forms.

• Please click here to access the ISEF Rules Wizard. This wizard will help you determine what forms and approvals are necessary before beginning your research project intended for competition at SSEF and ISEF. You must print out the results of the Rules Wizard and submit it with your SSEF entry form.
• To download the ISEF forms, please click here.
• All individual and team projects must submit the following forms:
  • ISEF Rules Wizard Confirmation Printout (see example here);
  • Form 1: Checklist for Adult Sponsor;
  • Form 1A: Student Checklist, with Research Plan / Post Project Summary attached;
  • Form 1B: Approval Form;
  • Form 1C: Regulated Research Institutional/Industrial Setting; required if the project is conducted outside the school. Please keep a copy of Form 1C which would be required in hardcopy for the judging at the Fair.
  • Form 3: Risk Assessment Form; required for all projects except those which are pure computational
• Members of a team project should jointly submit Form 1, Form 1A and a Research Plan.
• In addition, projects that involve human participants, vertebrate animals, potentially hazardous biological agents and hazardous substances or devices will require review and approval by the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) and/or Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to experimentation. These projects require other ISEF forms stated in the table below.  

Each project should submit the following project documents via the link (which will be provided to school coordinators) before 8 Jan 2020, 5pm. Applicants are strongly advised to complete and submit them as early as possible.

Students are advised to type their project abstract, report and Research Plan using 12-point Times New Roman font (or equivalent) with 1.5 line-spacing. The project code and title should be printed on the upper right-hand corner of each sheet except for the cover page. The project documents comprise the following:

• Cover Page should include only the title of project and project code. Names of students, school, mentor and research institutes should not be included.
  
• Research Plan should include the following: (a) Rationale (b) Research Question(s), Hypothesis(es), Engineering goal(s) and Expected Outcome(s) (c) Procedures, Risk and Safety and Methods for Data Analysis (d) Bibliography from your literature review
  
• Project Abstract is a concise summary of the report with no more than 250 words or less than 1800 characters, which will be used during project judging and for visitors during the public day. It should not include acknowledgements (such as the name of the school, name of mentor or research institutions) or external endorsements.
  
• Project Report describes the actual laboratory, field or theoretical research (not library research) for the project. It should involve ideas and preferably, data generated by the student.
  
  Credit should be given to the appropriate source and reference. 
  
  It should include (a) Background and Purpose of the research area, (b) Hypothesis of the research, (c) an Experimental section including Methods and Results, (d) Conclusion including a Discussion of the Results and Implications and (e) Bibliography of References. 
  
  Students are advised not to exceed more than seven pages, inclusive of data in tables, figures and diagrams. References and appendices do not count towards the seven-page limit. To ensure fairness across submission, judges have been advised that they can ignore any part of a report that exceeds the seven-page limit.
  
  The report should not include acknowledgements (such as the name of the school, name of mentor or research institutions) or external endorsements. 

Please click here for the suggested template.

The judging criteria for SSEF 2020 are as follows:

Each criterion has been elaborated, please click here for the Pre-Judging criteria and here for the final judging criteria. 
The judges' decisions are final and no correspondence will be entertained.

All reports submitted will be kept by the organisers and will not be returned. Each applicant should keep a copy of his or her report for personal use. The applicant is not required to send in his project databook(s) but he/she should have it available for the exhibition (on SSEF Final Judging Day) and interviews (ATS).

Please read the ISEF Display and Safety Regulations to have a better idea of what should and should not be included in exhibits for the SSEF Final judging round. The size of the booths for SSEF may differ from that of Intel ISEF.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the official ISEF website to view past projects and obtain other information that may be pertinent to SSEF.

A school-based SRC may be formed to assist the Affiliated Fair SRC in reviewing and approving projects. All SRC members must be familiar with the ISEF Rules and Guidelines during the review process. These guidelines are intended to ensure the safety of students, to protect the subjects and environments studied and to limit the liability of the adults who assist with the projects. Hence, it is important that the SRC ensures all projects abide by these rules and guidelines.

An IRB is a committee that must evaluate the potential physical and/or psychological risk of research involving humans. All proposed human research must be reviewed and approved by an IRB before experimentation begins. This includes review of any surveys or questionnaires to be used in the project.

The Affiliated Fair SRC may override the decision of a school-based SRC/IRB if the decision is deemed inappropriate.

The ISEF International Rules and Guidelines further elaborate on the composition and responsibilities of the review committees. Schools that are interested to set up their SRCs/IRBs are to complete the acknowledgement form here and submit via email to upstream@science.edu.sg or mail it to:

Attn: Science Upstream (SSEF 2020)
Science Centre Singapore
15 Science Centre Road
Singapore 609081

A reply endorsing the setting up of any new school-based SRCs/IRBs must be given by the Fair Director before the review committee can perform their role.

The Junior Scientist Category under SSEF is open to all budding and passionate scientists who have conducted research and projects in the preceding year either as Secondary 1 or 2 students.

Students are required to submit a science or engineering project that they have done as an individual or a team of not more than three members and present their ideas to judges during SSEF.

Outstanding projects stand to win attractive prizes. One student representative may have the opportunity to be awarded the Broadcom MASTERS International sponsorship which comes with a sponsored* trip to represent Singapore at the prestigious Broadcom MASTERS International (BCMI) Programme.

Participation Rules:

• The competition is open to all (Singaporean, PRs and Foreigners) Secondary level students studying in Singapore schools.
• Projects can be submitted as an individual or team projects of up to three members.
• Only a Singaporean or SPR will be eligible for nomination as the BCMI candidate.

Submission Procedure

Interested participants are to follow the following steps to register and submit the relevant documents by the stated deadlines. No hardcopy submission is required for the Junior Scientists category.

Project entries without registration will not be considered for the fair. Late submissions will not be entertained.

SSEF 2019

Click here for the list of SSEF 2019 Award Winners.

Click here for the awards received by the Singapore representatives at the ISEF 2019.

SSEF 2018 

Click here for the list of SSEF 2018 Award Winners.

Click here for the awards received by the Singapore representatives at the ISEF 2018.

SSEF 2004 to 2017

Click here for the list of SSEF 2004 to 2018 Award Winners.