TechOlympics Showcase Project Information
Each year, the TechOlympics Showcase is a central part of our technology competition and event. Schools work on their Showcase projects with their coach during the November to February timeframe, then present their projects as a team in front of our panel of executive judges from all over Cincinnati’s business community.
Create a project in one of these categories to earn points for your school in the 2025 TechOlympics Showcase. Use these as inspiration, but the sky’s the limit for what you can do. You will present this project to a panel of expert judges at TechOlympics 2025 in February.
The winning project of the TechOlympics showcase will have the chance to present their project to all other attendees and even at an INTERalliance board meeting!
Innovative Programming
- Create a functional web application that accomplishes a goal and is aesthetically pleasing.
- Develop a mobile app for any platform that helps users, whether it’s making their day-to-day life easier or helps them connect with others.
- Code a video game – and you better do something cooler than “Tic-tac-toe!”
Event Theme: Inspire
- Shine a spotlight on either a new technology, or an innovative way to make use of an older one.
- Present something entirely new; something the judges will never have seen before.
- Create something to shine a light on and help solve an issue in your community. This can be a micro or macro level issue as long as your solution is substantial.
Digital Design
- Make a 3D model for your school, a local business, or other organization.
- Create a marketing campaign or “brand” for a local business or cause, including a logo, posters, etc.
- Produce a video that tells a story, promotes a product or business, or conveys information. Can be real footage, animated, or both… use your imagination!
STEM Miscellaneous
- “STEM” stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. As long as your project idea is related to one of these topic areas, we want it at TechOlympics! Crazy experiments and innovations, robotics, algorithms, and inventions are all welcome – and then some.
- Try your hand at creating a business plan for the next “big thing” related to technology! Design a hypothetical product, app, or service; research what it would take to make it a possibility; and present it.
Project Requirements
- Each school can only submit 1 showcase project and up to 5 representatives from the school must attend the conference in order to present the project although any number of students may work on the project.
- The project must be original and must have been started at some point in the 2024-25 school year, and must contain a slideshow to be presented.
- Projects should be substantial. If a high level of effort is apparent when your project is being judged, your project will earn more points. Think outside the box, cover all your bases, and use a team to divide a huge project into small pieces so your school can succeed. The winning project of the TechOlympics showcase will have the opportunity to present their project in front of over 500 of their peers!
Showcase Project Registration is closed.
Best Practices
- While a working prototype is not required, it is highly encouraged. A working prototype will help to eliminate ambiguities and improve accuracy in interpretation of the project requirements and functionality.
- Providing judges with a workflow/development process will give them a heightened sense of how your project came to fruition. This may include the: tasks and requirements which constitute a process & the people or resources required to deliver this process.
- Similar to a workflow, a data/application flow will help judges follow the actual functionality and flow of information for your process or system. This is simply an overview that should be able to be elaborated upon.
- In addition to your core project, it is advised to develop a business and marketing plan if applicable. This will convey your forward-looking approach and show a practical plan for advancing your idea.
Showcase Rubric
| Score | Real-World Impact & Viability | Creativity & Originality | Technical Difficulty | Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Project is shallow. While it may be interesting, it does not address a real-world issue or problem. | Not very original at all, an overused idea. Cliche, unimaginative. | Project does not leverage technology and addresses a relatively superficial issue or problem that, while possibly entertaining, does not represent a technical challenge of substance. | Weak presentation. Poor public speaking skills shown. Not effective in communicating the idea. |
| 2 | Project provides a narrow problem that will have some impact if implemented. The cost is prohibitive for limited budgets. | Interesting idea. Not as unique as it could have been, but a little creativity is clear. | Project somewhat leverages new technology and addresses a relatively challenging issue or problem that represents a mild technical challenge of substance. | Presentation is acceptable to communicate the project, but could have been much stronger. People who presented were not as polished as they could have been. |
| 3 | Project provides a real solution to a real problem, with the impact limited to a very select group of people. Project doesn't scale particularly well but is effective in its described area of influence. | A creative idea. More than a mere copy of other people's ideas. | Project involves a moderately difficult or challenging subject matter or issue and makes a good attempt to use technology to address the problem. | Good attempt. One or more strong presenters. Some presenters were not strong enough for the role they were given. |
| 4 | Project provides a very interesting idea that would have a significant impact on a real world problem if implemented as described. | Very creative, innovative, original. Not typical. | Project involves a highly difficult or challenging subject matter or issue, and makes an impressive attempt to utilize technology to efficiently and directly solve the problem. | Strong presentation. Most or all of the students presented quite well. The presentation sold the project to the audience. |
| 5 | Project provides a powerful, innovative solution to a real-world problem that could have a wide impact on many people if implemented widely. | Outstanding. Surprisingly innovative. Clearly not a copy of anything that already exists. | Project involves very complex subject matter, a complex challenge, or a simple subject matter with a complex twist, and uses technology creatively to address the problems. | Very professional. Presentation effectively communicated their project. Students showed terrific and professional stage presence and presented very well. |
2025 Showcase Winners
Seven Hills District High School
Project Name: SeismoWave
Project Category: Event Theme: Inspire
Project Description: In the midst of rising sea levels, increased turbulence in the oceans, and the increased need to monitor ocean data to understand the implications of climate change, SeismoWave seeks to solve these issues by funding scientific data collection with energy production. SeismoWave is a wave energy generator that serves to map ocean data. Based on the Swedish company CorPower's current buoy design, SeismoWave contains an electric generator powered by the vertical movement of waves. By absorbing wave energy, SeismoWave is able to dampen ocean energy, which would slow erosion along local coastal regions. In addition, SeismoWave contains a seismometer powered by the generator's electrical output that serves to document seismic activity and underwater tectonic movements. This allows SeismoWave to collect data that is crucial in early earthquake and tsunami detections as well as climate change research. The scalability and expansion of the project demonstrate the simple ingenuity of combining commercial energy production with scientific data collection. We chose to implement an innovative and practical solution using pre-existing infrastructure and technology to make our project scalable for real-world use.
Funding, Resources, and Technology Comments: In terms of materials to build the project, we used extra plexiglass from the school and silicon caulk to create the wave simulator. We used our school's Maker Space to cut plexiglass as well as used our 3D printers to print parts. The Arduino, DC motor, bread board, battery and other hardware parts were mostly sourced from our school's Robotics team or CS department. In addition, C++ was used to code the Arduino. Most materials and parts were able to be sourced from school; however, other miscellaneous items were just bought by the group.
WeLead CS
Project Name: Plant Pal
Project Category: STEM Miscellaneous (Robotics, Hardware, etc.)
Project Description: Plant Pal is a tool that is used in the agricultural department by allowing regular people to large-scale greenhouses to keep track of their plants and their growing process. Due to the large agricultural aspect in the area, we decided to create a piece of technology that would track the conditions of a greenhouse using a piece of hardware that sends data to an app on your phone, and give you alerts when the growing conditions are less than ideal. We have concluded that this technology will help reduce the amount of plants that don't survive due to careless behavior or overlooked dangers. Plant Pal will help pioneer a new era of STEM in the agriculture field so that we can have healthier, more plentiful plants.
Funding, Resources, and Technology Comments: Microbit, School laptops, Glide
Fairfield Senior High School
Project Name: ClassMeet: Empowering Interconnected Education
Project Category: Innovative Programming
Project Description: In a society where education is a dividing factor between individuals of different backgrounds, often inhibiting individuals from interacting. ClassMeet tears down boundaries that keep students back from their highest potential in order to utilize education as a means of connection. Through ClassMeet, students will study and communicate with each other in subject-based forums, receiving tailored help from their peers. ClassMeet can also be employed as a free alternative to traditional tutors. To increase our strides towards this purpose, we hope to work closely with local schools to implement ClassMeet in a similar fashion as Google Classroom and Canvas, making it a widely available resource. By inspiring partnership in education, we hope to redefine the essence of conventional learning. In the future, ClassMeet will expand into the professional workplace, but for now, our main goal is to empower interconnected education all over America.
Funding, Resources, and Technology Comments: This project required team members to further their skills in coding and graphic design. After which they implemented these skills in creating an app. We utilized Xcode's application to store the code and used Swift as the coding language. For the user-interface portion of the app, we employed design apps like Figma and Pisco's Dev Mode. At the end, we put everything together and produced ClassMeet to empower students to use education as a means of connection.