New Team Playbook

Getting Started

The essentials every new STEM Racing India team needs before touching CAD: who can compete, what you must submit, and how judging is structured.

Who can compete

Team size

Minimum 3, maximum 6 students per team.

Age rule

Date of birth must fall after 1 January 2006, and the student must not turn 20 in the event year (i.e. max age 19 in the year of the event).

Uniform & representation

Only the official core team (max 6) may wear the team uniform or represent the team in any judging/racing/competition activity.

Naming your team

• Team names may not use protected Formula 1 word marks (e.g. 'Infinity F1' is not allowed; use 'Infinity' or 'Team Infinity' instead).
• A short team name (≤15 characters incl. spaces) is required for on-screen graphics.
• Team/organization names cannot contain reserved characters: < > : " / \ | ? *

Mentoring & partnerships

• Mentoring partnerships with businesses, industry or higher-education organizations are encouraged.
• All design work, text, scripting, CAD/CAM data, electronic portfolio and graphic content presented for assessment must be wholly created by the team itself.
• Any partnership-assisted project elements must still be fully understood and justifiable by the team to the Judges.
• 'Common sense' applies to purchased off-the-shelf components (e.g. bearings, screw eyes, display hardware) — teams should be able to explain/justify the choice.

Mandatory project elements

Every team must produce all of the following — missing one isn't a point deduction, it's a gap in your entry.

Two (2) identical STEM Racing India cars (Car A & Car B), including all optional replacement components.
One (1) digital A3 Design & Engineering Portfolio — 11 pages max.
One (1) digital A3 Project Management Portfolio — 7 pages max.
One (1) digital A3 Enterprise Portfolio — 12 pages max.
A Pit Display (presented virtually).
A 10-minute Verbal Presentation.
A set of engineering drawings (A4) including orthographic views and 3D renders, for Scrutineering judging.
A digital team logo.
All relevant CAD data, plus access to the CAD software used.
A completed Car Submission Checklist, including the official STEM Racing Model Block holographic stickers.

Submitting your files

Each document submitted as a separate, single PDF file.
Max size 40MB per file, whether emailed or uploaded to the STEM Racing India Digital Upload Folder.
All text inside PDFs must be highlightable (for similarity/plagiarism checking) — penalty of up to 20 pts at the Chair of Judges' discretion if not.
Files must be named: teamnumber_teamname_<doctype>.pdf — e.g. T01_STEMRACINGIndia_projectmanagement.pdf — covering design&engineering / projectmanagement / enterprise / render / engineeringdrawings.
All CAD parts/assembly files must also be submitted, named teamnumber_teamname_filename — e.g. T01_STEMRACINGIndia_fullcar_assembly.stl.

How judging works

Six judging teams (plus officials) cover Specification & Scrutineering, Design & Engineering, Project Management, Enterprise, Verbal Presentation and Racing. Each team has a Lead Judge; all Judges sign a conflict-of-interest declaration. An independent Chair of Judges oversees all procedures, rules on protests, and presides over the final results/awards meeting. The competition program runs multiple parallel judging streams (A/B/C/D) with ~20-minute rotations.

The Chair of Judges' decision is final on all matters.

See every judging category & scorecard

Submission day

Physical submission includes

• Car A — identified with white/black background 'Car A' logo decal.
• Car B — identified with white/black background 'Car B' logo decal.
• Optional replacement components (max quantities apply — see Technical Regulations page).
• Project Elements Submission Checklist, including the official STEM Racing Model Block holographic sticker.
• Each car is weighed at submission; small 5mm colour 'dot' stickers bearing the team's competition number are adhered to the underside of each car.
• Once submitted, all cars/components are held in parc fermé (a secure area preventing unauthorized handling, while still allowing technical inspection).
• STEM Racing India retains the right to keep one (1) submitted car per team for marketing/reference purposes.

Pit display

Approx. 2m wide × 1m deep × 2.4m high (estimated — confirmed closer to the event).

• Nothing may protrude beyond the allocated pit space, including above its highest point (e.g. flags) — penalty of up to 10–20 pts at the Chair of Judges' discretion.
• STEM Racing India / Chair of Judges may instruct removal of inappropriate display content.
• Pit displays can no longer be sent as freight to the National Finals (sustainability policy) — any freight attempt will be refused on delivery.
• All pit display materials must be virtually presentable by the team into the National Finals event.

Ready for the deep dive?

Competition Regs has the full scorecards. Technical & Max Points has every tolerance and penalty.

Competition Regs Technical & Max Points

Loading the regs…