Standards Support Innovation, Cooperation, and Excellence at the Olympic Games: ANSI Announces 2022 Student Paper Competition
9/07/2021
Deadline is 11:00 p.m. ET on June 1, 2022
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), in conjunction with its Committee on Education (CoE), has announced its 11th annual paper competition with the 2022 theme, Standards Support Innovation, Cooperation, and Excellence at the Olympic Games. The competition is part of a long-term effort to spread awareness among postsecondary students about the strategic significance of standards and conformance.
Standards play a key role in the collaborative work that enables the Olympics to become a reality for Olympian competitors and spectators alike. With the rescheduling of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics to July/August 2021 due to the COVID pandemic, and the Beijing Olympics launching in February 2022, the summer and winter Olympics will occur within a year’s time. In light of these exciting and inspirational events, and to highlight the importance of standards in these global sports celebrations, the ANSI 2022 Student Paper Competition asks students to explore the use of – or identify an absence of/need for – standards that support health, safety, performance, efficiency, and/or innovation at the Olympic Games.
Students can focus on standards needs for their favorite summer or winter sport, event, or other specific activity at the Tokyo or Beijing games, or, they can focus on standards addressing any of the unique planning needs, building/venues, travel, accommodations, technology/systems, infrastructure, and/or health and safety requirements that go into hosting a safe and successful Olympics. It is recommended that student paper contestants focus on specific challenges that have been or need to be addressed by voluntary consensus standards, for example: for athletes to compete safely, fairly, and at their highest potential; so that host cities can successfully accommodate the games while maintaining or improving quality of life for their citizens; to enable enhancements in broadcasting, communications, or audience health and safety.
Student applicants should reference American National Standards (ANS) and/or international standards and the organizations responsible for their development, whenever possible. Additionally, ANSI has developed a list of suggested resources for research and references:
- Learn more about voluntary consensus standards and American National Standards
- Search a list of approved American National Standards
- Search the organizations accredited by ANSI to develop American National Standards
- Search for international standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Search for international electrotechnical standards from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
- Check out some user-friendly ANSI resources that show the breadth of standards’ impact
- Search ANSI’s online news archive or www.ansi.org for more information
- Access the official Olympic Games website for inspiration
Who Can Apply?
The paper competition is open to students enrolled full- or part-time in associate, undergraduate, or graduate programs during the period of September 2021 to May 2022 in U.S. higher education institutions.
All entries must meet submission requirements and will be reviewed by top-level industry experts, including members of the standards community, experts in government, industry, professional societies, and academic institutions. Winning papers will be published on ANSI.org and potentially in other media outlets.
A cash prize will be awarded to the first- and second-place winners. ANSI reserves the right to award no prizes based on the determination of the judges. The winning papers will be announced in Q3 2022.
For full submission criteria and additional details, visit the ANSI Student Competition webpage or access and download the ANSI 2022 Student Paper Competition flyer. Email entries by 11:00 p.m. ET on June 1, 2022, to Lisa Rajchel, [email protected].
About the ANSI Committee on Education
The ANSI Committee on Education oversees all Institute initiatives related to standards and conformity assessment education and outreach, fulfills the objectives of the United States Standards Strategy (USSS), and responds to other issues that may be delegated by the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, or the National Policy Committee.
About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations.
The Institute represents and serves the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide. ANSI is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For more information, visit www.ansi.org.
