Product Design Competition 2025
Background
The Museum of Science Fiction believes that science fiction is rich with ideas that can serve as a springboard for curiosity and project-based learning activities. Based on the belief that science fiction holds educational value for all ages, the Museum and its partner organizations endeavor to develop and tailor our educational competitions to appeal to a wide variety of students, as well as the general public.
Who can participate? This competition is open to all students, designers, engineers, builders, and artists. Teams or individuals from the United States or abroad may participate.
About the Museum
The Museum of Science Fiction is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to make a positive impact on STEAM-related educational activities.
The Museum of Science Fiction believes that product design, engineering, and manufacturing can be an important interdisciplinary art form. Product design is an area that dissolves the false dichotomy between the arts and sciences. Designers typically use many different innovative techniques and technologies to engineer and manufacture commercial products.
Program Description
As part of our mission, we wish to create a VR experience that will educate and spark interest in STEAM through science fiction. VR design Entries should: 1. correspond to the Museum’s mission; 2. be interactive, engaging, intuitive and functional; 3. be immersive and within a high resolution environment.
The type of VR experience is open to the imagination of the competition participants, but must show the participant’s creativity and include elements of science fiction. It could, for example, include an immersive walk through a high definition rendered USS Enterprise from Star Trek, which would not only entertain but educate museum visitors about space travel.
The VR Museum, in its final form, will consist of a major entrance hall, seven themed galleries, and outside spaces. The seven galleries include: Creators, Time Travel, Lifeforms, Computers and Robots, Vehicles, Technology, and Other Worlds. As this competition primarily focuses on “sight and sound” (with possible special features and functionality), detailed curatorial narratives are not part of the judging criteria.
For example, a strong VR design Entry would be based on one of the above gallery spaces, ie. the Computers and Robots gallery and include a few animated, photo-realistic models - all rendered in high resolution to provide a stunning overall photo-realistic visitor experience.
Resources
US Patent No. 12,334,120
Example CAD renderings
Tonearm HiFi Guidance Article
Design Features and Constraints Checklist
Pre-submission Checklist
General information
Grand Prize: $1,000 and a pre-production mock-up of your design
Judging
All Entries will be judged by a panel of product experts selected by the Museum of Science Fiction in its sole and absolute discretion. Judges’ decisions will be final and binding in all respects. Judges will award each Entry a number of points based upon the following 100-point scale:
Category 1: Program description (0 to 25 points)
Does your product design correspond to the Program Description section above?
Category 2: Mechanical Functionality (0 to 25 points)
Is your product design technically feasible and capable of being engineered for manufacturing?
Category 3: Visual Quality (0 to 25 points)
Do your design renderings look photo-realistic? Is your design visually exciting?
Category 4: Creativity (0 to 25 points)
Is your product design imaginative? Does your design convey your product vision and branding potential?
Entry File Submission Procedure
To receive a registration number, first complete the registration form below.
The file submission package must not be larger than 1 GB and must include your registration number in the file names. File submission and secure upload instructions will be emailed to you with your registration number.
To register, click the Registration Form button
Registration and Submission Deadlines
The competition registration period will be open from Monday, July 7 to Friday, November 14, 2025 at 5pm EST. After completing the registration form, a registration number will be emailed to you with file submission and secure upload instructions. Your registration number must be included with all submission materials.
The submission deadline is Friday, November 21, 2025 at 5 PM EST.
The winner (or winning team) will be notified on or about Monday, November 24, 2025.
Please email any questions to: competition@museumofsciencefiction.org
Questions | Responses | Additional Information
Registration Cost: Free
Registration Process: Complete the registration form to obtain a registration number anytime before the registration deadline on November 14, 2025 at 5 PM EST. File submission and secure upload instructions will be emailed to you with your registration number. The submission deadline is Friday, November 21, 2025 at 5 PM EST.
Commissioning: a commission is not directly attached to winning the competition.
Judging Criteria: In addition to addressing programmatic requirements, the submission will be judged on how well it addresses the objectives listed in the Program Description and point totals across the four evaluation categories.
Official Rules: Click to download