The two Sponsors' Award winning projects were selected by judges from Cisco and Credit Suisse respectively. The criteria for these awards are quite broad, and include novelty, execution (quality of engineering, performance, difficulty), presentation, and usefulness, especially social benefits.

The People's Choice Award was judged by the attendees according to whatever criteria each attendee sees fit to use.

The "Where's the BOOM" award was judged by faculty from the CS department and CIS. The BOOM of "Where's the BOOM" means "Brains on our Machines", and it focuses on the computing aspects of the project (software algorithms, software engineering). Criteria for the "Where's the BOOM" award include novelty, elegance, simplicity, and appropriateness of algorithms, and overall software engineering. To be eligible for this award, the presenter must have displayed a brief (50 words or less) description of the computing aspects of the project, clearly labeled "Where's the BOOM".

The Where’s the BOOM? Youth Essay Contest was open to area middle and high school students. Win a 4GB RED iPod Nano! Submission deadline: March 15th. Winner notified by April 1st. Essays were judged for creative thinking, engagement with technology research, and clarity of language. Email inform@cis.cornell.edu for more information.