The search is on to find the most innovative student IT projects in Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull and South Leicestershire.

The Coventry branch of the British Computer Society (BCS) has been running this popular IT competition since 2005 but has focused only on website development.

However, this year it has broadened the scope of categories and they now include digital animation and design for a mobile phone application.

The competition is open to student teams aged 11 – 19 to design or develop one of the topics of their choice. Teams are allowed two entries per category which must be registered by 18 November.

Schools and colleges in the local region will be receiving application forms over the next few weeks and final submissions must be back with the organisers by 3 February 2012.

Irene Glendinning, from Coventry University, is the organiser of the competition. She said: “This year, we have decided to widen the choice of projects that the students can enter because technology has evolved over the past six years and we wanted to make sure that all skills were catered for.

“We recommend that each team member spends no more than 10 hours in total working on the team entry between October 2011 and March 2012 and teams will be notified by 20 February next year if they have qualified for the final.”

The competition finals will take place at Coventry University and teams will be invited to the finals exhibition, judging event and awards ceremony.

Everyone taking part in the finals will be presented with certificates but there will also be prizes for the school and individual prizes for students.

A panel of judges, which include IT professionals from local organisations as well as members of the BCS, will decide on the prize winners based on the assessment criteria and the awards will be presented on 15 March 2012.

To find out more about the competition visit: http://coventry.bcs.org/competition.php