Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition: This competition is designed for eligible students and Young Professionals, who indicate upon submission of a paper their desire to enter the competition and whose paper is accepted for either oral or interactive forum presentation.

Advanced Practice Paper Competition: The purpose of the Advanced Practice Paper Competition (APPC) is to recognize outstanding technical contributions that apply to practical applications. A paper on advanced practices describes, in contrast to basic research, a practical RF/microwave design, integration technique, process enhancement, and/or combination thereof that results in significant improvements in performance and/or in time to production for RF/microwave components, subsystems, or systems.

Industry Paper Competition: The purpose of the Industry Paper Competition (IPC) is to recognize outstanding technical contributions from industry sources. A paper from the RF/microwave industry that describes innovation of a product or system application that potentially has the highest impact on an RF/microwave product and/or system which will significantly benefit the microwave community and society at large.

Student Paper Competition: The purpose of the Student Paper Competition (SPC) is to recognize outstanding technical contributions from individual students. SPC finalists must present their papers at the assigned IMS2019 session, and also at the SPC Interactive Forum (separate from the regular Interactive Forum sessions) for judging by a specially formed SPC committee of experts.

Student Design Competitions: All eligible students and/or student teams are invited to consider taking part in one or more of the Student Design Competitions (SDCs) during IMS2019. SDCs are some of the most exciting events at IMS2019 and allow students to put theories into real hardware and software designs.

Sixty-Second Presentation Competition: Aims to recognize Interactive Forum participants who can best highlight their technical concept in a compelling video of less than one minute.  In order to be considered, Interactive Forum presenters must upload their video at the same time as their final paper submission.  Winners will be determined by popular vote via an online rating system.

Hackathon: This is a fun event where participating teams (two people per team) are given a microwave design problem, and are required to prototype their solutions within a certain amount of time. This year's hackathon will continue the fast-paced style of recent years' hackathons, but be extended to one hourso that the scale and complexity of the problem are increased. The competition is open to all IMS attendees, and awards will be given to the winning hackers!