2025 Student Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition

2025 Student Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition is now open for entries!

2025 Student Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition : The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and its educational and research organization, the ET Foundation (ETF), are inviting students interested in product design, industrial design, design engineering, manufacturing, and other fields from around the world to share their vision for the future using aluminum extrusions.

Short description

The Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition strives to challenge and empower the next generation of designers to think about how aluminum extrusions can shape a better, more sustainable world and continue to improve the quality of people’s lives.

The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and its educational and research organization, the ET Foundation (ETF), are inviting students interested in product design, industrial design, design engineering, manufacturing, and other fields from around the world to share their vision for the future using aluminum extrusions.

Students have a unique and innovative way of looking at the world, which makes them well-qualified to offer creative solutions to design challenges.

You are invited to think beyond the ordinary to come up with new, innovative, and resourceful ways to use extruded aluminum.

You can enter one or more designs.

Winning entries will be those that best demonstrate the benefits of aluminum extrusions - whether by inventing a new product or improving an existing one - by achieving the following objectives:

➜ Creativity: innovative design, new application capability, methods to meet a new design challenge
➜ Practicality: ease of fabrication and assembly, cost-effectiveness, use of extruded aluminum over other materials or processes, will a typical size extrusion press be able to produce your shape? Refer to the Design Tips section for more information.
➜ Product/Process improvement: customization or improvement of extrusion processes, close tolerances, takes full advantage of extrusion capabilities to improve a product
➜ Market Potential: design/product marketability and likelihood of market success.

Winning designs are selected by a panel of aluminum extrusion industry professionals who will judge entries based on the competition criteria. Winners will be announced in Spring 2025.

Submission requirements:

➜ Entry materials may be submitted as a PDF (no larger than 10 mb), which can be emailed to mail@ETFoundation.org or saved on a CD-ROM disk or flash drive and mailed to the ET Foundation at the address noted on the Official Entry Form. Submission of the entry on a presentation board no larger than 17" x 11" is also acceptable, however digital images are preferred.

➜ Any drawings or CAD models should be saved as JPG images
➜ Special consideration will be given to entries that include a printed 3-D model of their extrusion profile design and/or include a video. The more supporting material that is available, the better the entry will be able to be accurately judged.

Who may enter?

Entrants for the Student Design Competition must currently be enrolled in a 2-year, 4-year, trade, or technical school to be eligible to participate, which includes graduate students. High school students are also eligible. Graduate students are also eligible, provided the student is currently enrolled as a full- or part-time student. Individual and Team submissions will be accepted.

Prize:

The following awards will be available:

➜ First Place: $5,000
➜ Second Place: $4,000
➜ Third Place: $3,000
➜ Sustainable Design Challenge: $3,500

Prizes will be split between team members for team submissions that win.