In 1977, the SDITE started an Outstanding Student Paper Award to encourage greater involvement in ITE by students.

In 2001, the Outstanding Student Paper Award was divided into two separate categories. Undergraduate students are eligible for the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Paper Award and graduate students are eligible for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award. Winners are often invited to present their papers at the SDITE Annual Meeting. If they are able to attend, the students’ expenses are paid by SDITE.

The Southern District ITE sponsors a student paper competition each year for graduate and undergraduate student who submit a technical paper. Information is sent out to all the student chapter officers and advisors early in the year outlining the details of the competition. Each entrant must be a dues-paid student member of ITE. The papers are due to the Education and Student Chapter Committee chair no later than March 1st. The committee reviews all submitted papers and selects four awards: Graduate Winner, Graduate Runner-up, Undergraduate Winner, and Undergraduate Runner-up. The awards are presented at the Southern District Annual Meeting each spring.

There have been occasions in the past where the Southern District receives a limited number of student papers. In some instances we have only received one paper or none at all. In this case, no award money is distributed. So, we encourage all students to submit a paper – in many cases, the students have nothing to lose and so much to gain!

The Southern District accepts papers in accordance with the Daniel B. Fambro Student Paper Competition.