The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will hold an international standards competition from 12 to 5 pm on Monday, October 24, 2016, at the FHI 360 Conference Center, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC. The event is part of the World Standards Week (WSW) series of meetings and celebrations hosted annually by ANSI, coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system.
The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is co-sponsoring and helping coordinate the competition.
The competition will bring together university teams - each made up of up to five students and one professor - who will represent stakeholders in the development of an international standard. While the development of an actual, globally relevant voluntary consensus standard may take months and multiple meetings, this simulation is intended to condense the effort into an informative and fun afternoon of strategy and negotiation.
The simulation itself will focus on the development of a new, fictional performance standard related to industrial communication systems. Each team will negotiate for different objectives - some will want to see the standard advanced and adopted immediately, and others will have to present arguments that reflect different stakeholder positions, including security, interoperability, and market access requirements.
Judges from ANSI's Committee on Education will be on hand to observe each team's strategies, tactics, and interactions, and will make recommendations for scores based on how well each team has met its objectives in the development of the final standard. Together, the full judging panel will determine a first-place team who most effectively met their objectives. Each member of the winning team will receive a personal technology device, and two runner-up teams will also be awarded portable jolt chargers.
Participation in the competition is open to university teams only, and space is limited to no more than six teams. Teams consisting of undergraduate or graduate students from engineering, business, public policy, and other related disciplines are welcome. To be considered for participation in the competition, universities, professors, and/or students should contact [email protected] as soon as possible. If individual students or small groups are interested, please also contact [email protected] and ANSI will consider forming a team unaffiliated with a university if space allows.
A limited number of observers may also participate in the session, and can sign up for this and other World Standards Week events on the registration page.
World Standards Week, to be held this year from October 24-28, is an annual event where members of the standards and conformity assessment community come together in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration. For more information, including registration for other WSW events and details on all meetings and conferences, visit www.ansi.org/wsweek.
About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is made up of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.
The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).