Competition Overview

The STEM-ED Drone Coding Competition (DCC) is designed to provide high school students with a hands-on opportunity to program and fly drones. Teams are asked to program a DJI Tello drone to accomplish tasks autonomously over several months. Teams are then asked to submit their code which will then be judged based on how well the program allows the drone to complete the tasks. Prize money will be awarded to the best teams in each category; additionally, 2nd place, and 3rd place prizes will be awarded for teams that compete in the Advanced category.

The top 5 teams from each division will have their code run by DCC judges on a different course setting to determine the final rankings. The finalists will also be asked to present to a panel of judges which will influence the final rankings.

Prize Money*:

Advanced Category

• First Prize: $2000

• Second Prize: $1000

• Third Prize: $500

Intermediate Category

• First Prize: $750

Beginner Category

• First Prize: $250

  Qualification Stage Winner

  • First Prize: $500

Teams:

1-3 Students of High School Age (homeschool students encouraged, middle-school students allowed)

Cost:

$175/team (no limit on how many teams from each school) NOTE: Limited financial aid is available. Please fill out this form: Financial aid form (must be filled out by 10/1/23). Please reach out to beldon@stemed.org for more details.

Dates:

• 8/19/23: Registration Open 

• 9/1/23: Competition Begins/ Draft Rulebook Released

• 9/8/23: Kickoff Presentation/ Qualification Stage Finalized

  • 9/8/23 2:00PM Pacific Standard Time

  • Presentation can be found here: Presentation

  • Recording can be found here: Kickoff-Recording

• 10/15/23: Mission Description Released

• 11/1/23: Qualification Submission Deadline

• 11/1/23: Registration Fee deadline

• 11/27/23: Mission Stage Deadline

• 11/27/23: Week of, Presentations

• December 2023: Results announced

*Prize money dependent on number of teams and may be less than indicated

Final Results: