IEEE HardwAIre Challenge
The submission portal for the 2026 IEEE HardwAIre Challenge is now closed. We thank you for your interest and recommend signing up to receive email alerts from IEEE HART so you can participate in next year’s Challenge.
The Challenge
Your team’s mission is to design and implement a complete wireless sensor node capable of monitoring temperature and transmitting the data to a reader system. The key requirement is that your hardware must explicitly integrate artificial intelligence (AI)—either by using AI to assist in the design process, or by incorporating AI into the operation of the prototype itself. Your solution will be judged on key performance indicators including lowest cost, minimal size and weight, lowest energy consumption, and maximum communication range.
You may ask…why?
Why are we measuring temperature? What are we measuring the temperature of? Who will be using this wireless sensor node and why?
Rather than define these variables for you, we want to leave the use case open-ended and ask you to come up with a story to tell us! Maybe a new AI data center is going up and they put out a bid for local startups to develop temperature sensors. Maybe the South Pole science station needs to be alerted if their most important field equipment is about to get too cold to operate. Or maybe the city aquarium needs a 24/7 readout of the water temperature in every fish and mammal tank. Come up with a creative scenario, send us a proposal, and get ready to be notified if you’ve been selected to build a prototype.
How to Apply (No Deadline!)
Gather a team of IEEE Student or Graduate Student Members and 1 faculty supervisor and submit your technical proposal today.
There is no deadline to apply. Why? Because HART wants to encourage teams to work fast! The competition is strictly limited to a maximum of 50 teams, and how quickly you get your application submitted is a key factor in determining who is selected to advance into the round of 50.
Free Stuff!
Accepted teams will receive a free 12-month license to hardware design software by Ansys, and financial reimbursement from the HART initiative to purchase necessary items from the HART Intelligent Hardware Toolkit to build their prototype.
The available Ansys licenses are listed below:
- Ansys Icepak
- Ansys HFSS
- Ansys Q3D Extractor
- Ansys SIwave
- Ansys Motor-CAD
- Ansys Maxwell
- Ansys Q3D Extractor
- Ansys OptiSLang
Challenge Timeline
This initial proposal is only Phase 1, and it is intended to narrow the field to 50 teams who will move on to Phase 2. Phase 2 will have a new submission form and a traditional deadline. The 50 selected teams will get about two months to work on their prototype. By the deadline of 6 September 2026 (subject to change) all 50 teams will submit:
- A description of the project, including the real-world scenario imagined by the team and the impact that AI had on the final solution
- Files with simulations
- Files with actual measurements
- A video (5-minutes max) showcasing your prototype/solution, your team, your process, and your results
Judging will take about two weeks and the top three finalists will be announced by the end of September. The top three finalists will be invited to attend an IEEE HART workshop in December (exact dates and location TBD) for final in-person judging. Each team will receive up to US$9,000 in travel reimbursement. The finalist judged as the best solution will receive a prize of US$2,000, with runners up receiving US$500.
Pertinent documentation:
- IEEE HardwAIre Challenge Phase 2 Guidance Document (PDF, 284 KB)
- IEEE HardwAIre Challenge Student Brief (PDF, 164 KB)
- IEEE HardwAIre Challenge Rules (PDF, 103 KB)
Other IEEE Hardware-focused Competitions
- SoutheastCon Hardware Competition – sponsored by IEEE Region 3, a major regional event featuring multi-stage robotics challenges and circuit design contests
- MYOSA – Make Your Own Sensors Applications, sponsored by Sensors Council
- Student EMC Hardware Competition – sponsored by EMC at EMC+SIPI 2026
- SSCS Arduino Contest – sponsored by SSCS, for high school and undergraduate students, with recommended kits
- AP-S Student Design Contest – sponsored by AP-S, where students design a compact, multi-functional antenna system for automotive applications of your choice
- IMS2026 Student Design Competitions – sponsored by MTT-S at IMS2026
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- CASS Student Design Competition – sponsored by CAS, an annual worldwide challenge for undergraduate students focused on solving real-life problems using circuits and systems
- AHA! (AI-based Hardware Attacks) Challenge – co-sponsored by Computer Society, a red-team/blue-team hacking competition at HOST 2026 where teams use LLMs to either insert or detect hardware Trojans
- LLMs for Hardware Design Challenge – sponsored by Computer Society at ICCD 2025
- HOST Hardware Hacking Competition – co-sponsored by Computer Society, a live demo-based contest focused on identifying vulnerabilities and breaking barriers in modern hardware systems