The Third Annual National Security Innovation Competition (NSIC) for college students will be presented by the National Homeland Defense Foundation and sponsored by the Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance and the Colorado Springs Technology Incubator in Colorado Springs, Colorado May 1.

The competitors include some of the nation's most prestigious schools including University of Notre Dame,Virginia Tech, Pennsylvania State University, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Air Force Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan Technological University, Rice University, University of Arizona, University of Buffalo, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Denver, University of Washington and Washington State University.

This one-of-a kind nationwide university competition is designed to stimulate interest by college students in national security-related innovations and expose novel technologies to a broad audience including industry, academic, and government organizations involved in aerospace, defense, security, and first responder activities.

The competition is open to full-time undergraduate or graduate students at any college or university, including students who have graduated in the last six months. The entries must be the original idea and work product of the student/advisor team. Teams submit written papers describing their technical innovation. These preliminary round papers are judged by a team of government and industry subject matter experts who select up to 10 top teams to compete in Colorado Springs in May. Final oral presentations will be presented to a group of judges representing sponsors, end users and potential funding sources for further development of these outstanding innovative concepts.

Cash scholarship awards will be made to the top three teams. NSIC 2009 will be judged by a panel of industry officials including the Science & Technology Division of the Department of Homeland Security, U. S. Northern Command, U.S. Strategic Command and Boeing. The event is hosted at MITRE Corporation's Colorado Springs office.