Judges Needed for the Greater Austin Regional Science and Engineering Fair (GARSEF) 2026

GARSEF is a competition for students from 55 school districts as well as private, charter and home schools in 14 counties who are advancing from their local schools.

Junior (middle school) Division and Senior (high school) Division students submit their projects in one of 19 scientific categories, covering Life and Physical Sciences, Computational Science and Math and Engineering. Judging is competitive and the top two winners in each category from both divisions advance to the state fair at Texas A&M in College Station. The overall top six projects in the Senior Division, called "Best of Fair", advance directly to the international competition.

Because judging is competitive, we need subject matter experts to evaluate the projects. 7-8 projects are assigned to each group of judges (typically consisting of 3-5 people). After a group has interviewed their assigned students, team members discuss the merit of each project and jointly determine the ranking. Seniors are judged in the morning, Juniors in the afternoon. It is a 2–4-hour commitment, depending on the number of students in each category. (The Junior Division Chemistry, Engineering, and Physics categories tend to be rather large, for example, and have to be done in two rounds.) We offer orientation sessions in the weeks leading up to the fair.

Judging for this year's Junior/Senior fair will take place on Thursday, Feb 19, 2026, at the Palmer Event Center. Students will register and set up their projects on Wednesday, Feb 18, and projects will be available for previewing that night without students present. Links to the abstracts, research plans and electronic project boards will be made available the weekend prior to the fair.

Elementary students are judged on Saturday, Feb 21, 2026; judging is not competitive, and every project receives either a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place ribbon.

Judges Qualifications:

Junior Division: Undergraduate (3rd year and above) and graduate students, as well as professionals with either a degree or 3 years of experience in the applicable science category.

Senior Division: Graduate students, professionals with either a degree or 5 years of experience in the applicable science category.

Elementary Division: Adults with a good general education and the ability to talk to young children.

To register, go to https://austinscience.org/judge; for questions, please contact ingrid.weigand@austinscience.org

Watch our video to learn more: https://austinscience.org/