The Collegiate Inventors Competition Judging Process
Find out how we determine the winners.
Judging is completed in two rounds
Round 1
Each Collegiate Inventors Competition® (CIC) entry is reviewed by our initial judging panel made up of scientists, researchers and experts in a variety of fields.
The Judges’ collective scores and rankings, along with data collected by independent researchers, are used by the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) to determine the Finalists.
All Finalists are notified two months before the final judging round.
Round 2
In October, Finalist teams meet virtually with our final judging panel to formally present the work they’ve done to bring their extraordinary inventions to life.
The final judging panel consists of NIHF Inductees and special guest Judges, which have included intellectual property experts from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Abbott Laboratories, among others.
Following the Finalists’ presentations, the Judges deliberate and select the winners in each category.
Meet our 2021 Judges
NIHF Inductees
JD Albert
Electronic Ink
2016 NIHF Inductee
Eric R. Fossum, Ph.D.
CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensor Camera-on-a-Chip
2011 NIHF Inductee
Marcian "Ted" Hoff, Ph.D.
Microprocessor
1996 NIHF Inductee
Alois Langer, Ph.D.
Implantable Defibrillator
2002 NIHF Inductee
Frances Ligler
Portable Optical Biosensors
2017 NIHF Inductee
Radia Perlman, Ph.D.
Robust Network Routing and Bridging
2016 NIHF Inductee
Margaret Wu
Synthetic Lubricants
2022 NIHF Inductee
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Jackie Cheng
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Scarlett Goon
Technology Center 1600 Quality Assurance Specialist