This page is designed to facilitate the registration process of schools, teachers, and students for the 2021 New York State Science & Engineering Fair. Below you will find detailed descriptions of each phase of the registration process. It is recommended that you read the entire registration procedure in order to avoid any errors. All registration steps must be completed by our posted deadlines.

  • Step 1: Every liaison must register prior to students in order to provide students their respective code.
  • Step 2: Every student must create an account and register their project by February 11, 2021 at 5PM in order to participate. (All Divisions)
  • Step 3: All participating liaisons and schools are required to mail registration fees to NYSSEF Inc. by March 11, 2021. (All Divisions)
  • Step 4: Participating students (individuals or team leaders) are required to upload applicable ISEF forms and presentation video by March 11, 2021. (ISEF ONLY)
  • Please note the following technical support deadlines:
  • o All NYSSEF Divisions Registration Technical Support Deadline – February 10, 2021 5pm
  • o NYSSEF ISEF Form Upload Technical Support Deadline – March 10, 2021 5pm

1) Teacher Registration

Open Monday, Feb 1, 2021

Teacher registration needs to be submitted by a school official, teacher or a parent if home schooled, NOT by students.

Every teacher with participating students 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 the 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 a teacher for official participation. Use your last name as a school name and register student's parent or guardian as a teacher.

2) Student Registration

Open Monday, Feb 1, 2021

Account can be created by students or their teachers.

Every student needs to be registered and upload their signed application form.

Each participating student and project that wants to participate at NYSSEF will need to create an account. Via the use of the project account, you will be able to add students to your project. If participating in the ISEF DIVISION, only the team leader should upload ISEF Forms (See #3 below). 

3) ISEF Forms uploads AND VIDEOs (ISEF DIVISION ONLY)

Open Monday, Feb 15, 2021

All projects participating at the NYSSEF ISEF Division fair, are required to submit proof of regional fair participation, a copy of the rules wizard, research plan, applicable ISEF Forms for the project and an abstract (on the ISEF abstract Form) followed by your research paper.

Please note, fillable boxes on PDFs are unreliable for retaining typed text during uploads. In order to assure that there are no issues with your ISEF form uploads you MUST print all filled ISEF forms and scan the sheets into your computer. Only these completed and scanned forms should be submitted to NYSSEF. ISEF forms can only be uploaded to the NYSSEF website ONCE! Once submitted no changes can be made to any forms, including overwrites. It is essential that you ensure all forms are filled in completely and properly before scanning and submitting on the NYSSEF website.

The project abstract should list the purpose of the research, procedures used, data analyses, and conclusions completed by the student (s) only. Projects should be described in a lucidly written paragraph and be submitted on the ISEF abstract form. In the case of engineering projects the abstract need only convey what the student is attempting to build. The only requirement for entry is that the engineering project work after its completion.

Please note that you will need to upload all required ISEF forms and additional supporting documents listed above (orange) for your project as individual uploads and individual PDF upload sizes should not exceed 5MB. These upload boxes are accessible on your NYSSEF dashboard after clicking on the yellow box which says “NYSSEF ISEF registration.” The deadline for technical support for submitting ISEF forms is Wednesday, February 5th at 5pm,after this deadline no emails will be answered regarding form uploads. All uploads must be submitted by the registration deadline of Friday, February 7th at 5pm. There is a maximum limit of three (3) students per project. All participating students are required to review all our participation, safety, and display rules before attending NYSSEF.

Once the project paperwork is submitted for pre-approval, our SRC staff will review your project paperwork and inform your liaison of the outcome along with any additional steps that may be needed for pre-approval completion. Projects that fail to submit revised paperwork timely will not be eligible for participation in NYSSEF ISEF 2021.