Step 1: 

Every teacher that has students attending needs to be registered first

Step 2: 

Every participating project needs to create an account

Step 3: 

Get your project pre-approved before you begin your experimentation

Step 4: 

Every project and all its students need to be registered in order to participate

Step 5: 

All participating students are required to mail a registration fee to us

Step 6: 

All participating projects and students are required to submit ISEF forms to us

Step 7: 

All participating projects must submit their digital poster board

Every teacher with participating student needs to be registered first. There is no penalty for submitting this registration and not having any participating students. Teachers are encouraged to register themselves as soon as possible, to expedite project registration process.

If your school/teacher is not participating in our program, you can still register as a home school project. You still need to register teacher for official participation. Use your last name as a school name and register student's parent or guardian as a teacher.

Each participating project that wants to participate at our fair will need to create an account. Via the use of the project account, you will be able to add students to your project, submit your pre-approval paperwork (step 3), project registration (step 4) and submit your final ISEF forms and media releases (step 6) for your project.

You are required to submit pre-approval if you meet either of the following conditions:

• Your completed ISEF Rules Wizard determined that you require IRB approval.
• Your school, local or district fair did not conduct official SRC review of your project.

If you meet either of the above listed conditions, your completed ISEF forms as determined by ISEF Rules Wizard, must be submitted for pre-approval, before any experimentation can begin; construction, research, or testing is NOT permitted until your paperwork is approved. Incomplete forms will be rejected, thus delaying your project. Projects that fail to submit their pre-approval paperwork on time will not be eligible for SASEF or ISEF competition.

Once your paperwork is sumitted for pre-approval, our staff will review your project and inform you and your teacher of the outcome along with any additional steps that may be needed for pre-approval completion. Please note that you will need to upload all the required paperwork for your project at once, as determined by the ISEF Rules Wizard. You can only upload PDF, JPEG, DOC and DOCX file formats where total upload size does not exceed 8MB. If you don't have a scanner, you can use your cell phone to take a picture of filled out pre-approval paperwork and upload the picture instead.

Senior Division projects (grades 9-12) are limited to (2) students per project and project id; and only one project per registration and project ID.
Junior Division projects (grades 6-8) are limited to (3) students per project and project id; and only one project per registration and project ID. Teams of 3 may not be eligible for some national awards.

All participating students/projects are required to review all our participation, safety and display rules before attending our event.

Every student (not project) participating at 2025 SASEF is required to mail a non-refundable registrations fee in form of cash or check. Checks should be made out to SASEF. In the memo line print the student's name. See contact us page for registration fee mailing address.

Poster Fee Structure
If they wish, students can opt-in to have the university print their research poster and pick it up on the day of the event. If a student chooses to opt-in for this service, there will be an additional fee of $10 added to their registration fee amount (see fee structure below). Note that all research posters printed by the university will need to be formatted as no larger than 36 in height x 48 in width. They will be printed on plain paper type and will be printed in color. If you wish for the university to print your research poster, the digital version of your poster must be submitted via online registration (see step #7 for more details). Here is a poster template to get you started.

Regular Fee Structure
Students are not required to have the university print their posters. They can have their posters printed on their own, or students are more than welcome to construct a traditional tri-fold board poster if they wish. If a student plans to construct a traditional tri-fold board poster or print their own poster, then they would simply pay the regular fee structure.

Registration Fees: (including poster printing) $20 before Feb 1, $35 from Feb 1 to Feb 15, $45 from Feb 16 to Feb 27

Registration Fees: (without poster printing) $10 before Feb 1, $25 from Feb 1 to Feb 15, $35 from Feb 16 to Feb 27

After you registered your project, you can upload a complete set of ISEF forms as determined by completing the ISEF Rules Wizard. All projects and students need to submit ISEF forms online regardless of the fact if they needed SRC or IRB approval. Please note that you will need to upload all the required ISEF forms for your project at once. You can only upload PDF, JPEG, DOC and DOCX file formats where total upload size does not exceed 8MB. If you don't have a scanner, you can use your cell phone to take a picture of filled out pre-approval paperwork and upload the picture instead.

Abstract is required for all projects. Abstract, with 250 word limit, should list the purpose of the research hypothesis, the procedures used, the data, and the conclusions. In the case of engineering projects the abstract need only convey what the student is attempting to build, no hypothesis is needed. The only requirement for entry is that the engineering project work after its completion. The projects should be described in a lucidly written paragraph. It is recommended that students keep several copies of their abstract by the project for public/judge review.

Incomplete forms will be rejected, thus delaying your project. Projects that fail to submit their paperwork on time will not be eligible for SASEF category awards or attending the ISEF National Competition.

The 2025 SASEF fair will require students to submit their posters digitally in advance of the fair. This is to assist in the judging process so that judges can access student posters after students have left the judging floor. Students will still bring a physical copy of their poster to the fair.

In the SASEF Online Registration System, students will be asked to submit a:

Project poster (required) - All students must submit a digital version (PDF) of their project poster no later than the deadline of Thursday, Mar 20, 2025. When creating your poster please note that SASEF has display guidelines as well as the rules set out by the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair Guidelines (Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair Guidelines). Please see Step #7 here for the full set guidelines. Login to your project account here to submit your digital poster by the deadline.

General notes on the project poster requirements:

• When creating the project poster to display at the fair, make sure you do not include your last name, your school's name, or pictures of a person's face other than your own.
• Click here for a poster template to help you get started. You are not required to use this template, and you are welcome to make design changes to the template as you wish
• You are welcome to submit a traditional project poster board (e.g. tri-fold board) if you wish, but you must make sure all parts of the PDF that you submit digitally are visible and legible
• Maximum size of Project: Depth (front to back): 30 in, Width (side to side): 48 in, Height (floor to top): 108 in
• SASEF provided tables will be no higher than 36 in

Quad Chart - You will need to provide a Quad Chart if you are selected to compete at ISEF. Refer to quad chart instructions when creating your file.

Project video (optional) - a 2-minute presentation is optional for each project. Judges are not required to review the video. Videos need to be uploaded to YouTube (how to upload)

Additional supporting documents (optional) - you may also submit any additional supporting documents if you wish. Supporting documents may include photos, charts, surveys, project reports/summaries, etc.

If your program does not natively support saving in PDF, you can use a free online service like Smallpdf to convert a variety of files to PDF.