Eligibility

• This award is meant to recognize a specific individual or team accomplishment and is not intended for company or organization recognition. 
• Case study author may be an individual or team (prize will be split and travel to the awards ceremony will be limited in the event of a team award). 
• Individuals from all areas of the public and private sector, including industry, academia, and government, are eligible. 
• Employees of Analytic Services Inc. and the Faculty and Staff of Stevens Institute of Technology are not eligible for this prize.

Winner Stipulations

• The Gold Medal Winner must be available to present a seminar on the selected case study at the ASysT Institute in Arlington, VA. 
• The Gold Medal Winner must be available to attend the awards banquet to receive the case study award. 
• If any Winner is unable to accept the monetary award for any reason, the funds will be donated to an educational institution selected by the External Review Panel . 
• Winners must agree to assign copyright privileges over all submissions to the ASysT Institute and Analytic Services Inc. in order to facilitate online and other publication of the winning submission. 
• Winners must also certify the originality of their submission and indemnify ASysT, Analytic Services Inc. and Stevens from any liability if their submission is later determined to have infringed on other copyrighted material.

Evaluation Criteria

There are 3 primary criteria for evaluation:

1. Quality of Systems Thinking: The accomplishment must clearly show the application of systems thinking. It must also illustrate the benefit that systems thinking brought to the analysis and how it allowed the achievement of something that was not otherwise possible. 
2. Demonstrated Impact of Systems Thinking on the Problem: The case study must clearly articulate how the use of systems thinking provided unique insights into the problem and, if applicable, how it provided novel approaches to or concepts for the solution.
3. Technical Merit: The case study must be written in a style equal to that required for technical papers and journal articles. Proper use of terminology is critical. In addition, all case studies should be free from typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors and all source materials should be fully referenced.

Evaluation Process

Case studies will be accepted from June 1, 2009 through September 16, 2009.

Case studies must be submitted using the online form and must include information on the case study author(s). (Online submissions open June 1, 2009.)  The first step in the submission process is registering for an account.  This registration is very simple, provides access to the appropriate forms, and allows the nominator to save the form and return at a later time for additional edits.

All submissions must follow the Case Study Guidance. Case studies which do not meet these requirements will not be considered.

The case studies will be reviewed by ASysT staff. The staff will select 5 case studies as finalists in the competition. These case studies will then be sent to an external review panel for final selection of the gold, silver, and bronze level winners. Winners will be notified of selection by October 14, 2009.

The Gold Medal Winner must be available to present their case study at the 2009 ASysT Awards Seminar on November 13, 2009 at the ASysT Headquarters in Arlington, VA (travel funds for the primary author will be provided).