Scholarship Announcement: 2011 OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award Video Contest

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is pleased to announce that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, or ASME, Foundation is offering scholarships to the winners of the 2011 NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Contest. These scholarships, with a combined value of $25,000, will be awarded by the ASME Foundation to students whose video submissions best represent a selected NASA spinoff technology featured in the Agency’s 2010 Spinoff publication.

Featuring OPTIMUS PRIME, the leader of the popular TRANSFORMERS brand, the 2011 OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award Contest highlights spinoffs from NASA technologies that are used on Earth. The goal is to help students understand the benefits of NASA technology to their daily lives. Last year’s contest was open to students in grades 3-8 and resulted in 76 video submissions from over 190 students in 31 states.

For the 2011, the OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award Contest has been expanded to include students in grades 3-12. Each student, or group of students, will submit a three- to five-minute video on a selected NASA spinoff technology listed in NASA’s 2010 “Spinoff” publication. Videos must demonstrate an understanding of the NASA spinoff technology and the associated NASA mission, as well as the commercial application and public benefit associated with the spinoff technology.

Video entries are due Jan. 31, 2012.

Video entries will be posted on the NASA YouTube channel, and the public will be responsible for the first round of judging. The top five submissions from each of the three grade groups (Elementary [3rd-5th], Middle [6th-8th] and High School [9th-12th]) will advance for final judging. A NASA panel will select a winning entry from each group. Among other prizes, a crystal OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award Trophy will be given to winners at a special awards ceremony being held in Florida in April 2012. The innovators associated with the NASA technology highlighted in the winning videos also will receive trophies, as will their commercial partners.

For more information, visit the OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award website at http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/optimus.

Questions about this contest should be directed to Darryl Mitchell at Darryl.R.Mitchell@nasa.gov.