The Field

Students who like to build things already have a map of programmes. This page places LBX on that map without pretending we invented the landscape. LBX is not an affiliate of Regeneron ISEF or of Society for Science. A project made for LBX may later be entered elsewhere; that is the student’s choice, not a pipeline we run.

LBX tracks and rules Build a project

Research fairs in the ISEF ecosystem

  • Regeneron ISEF 2026 — Phoenix

    The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair met at the Phoenix Convention Center from 9 to 15 May 2026. More than 1,700 finalists from 365 affiliate fairs in more than 60 countries, regions and territories competed for more than USD 7 million in awards and prizes. Finalists reach ISEF by winning at a Society-affiliated local, regional, state or national fair — not by entering ISEF directly, and not via LBX.

  • Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge

    Thermo Fisher JIC is the premier STEM research competition for US students in grades 6–8, run with Society for Science. Nomination comes through Society-affiliated fairs. It is the middle-school research pathway in the same affiliated-fair ecosystem that feeds ISEF at high school. LBX’s Junior Division overlaps in age but is not part of that nomination chain.

  • Broadcom MASTERS

    Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) was the previous name of the Society’s US middle-school research competition. In 2023 the programme became the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. Families still search for “Broadcom MASTERS”; they now want JIC. We list the old name so the map stays readable.

Invention, entrepreneurship and robotics

  • Conrad Challenge

    The Conrad Challenge invites students aged 13–18 to build STEM inventions and a business model, in teams of two to five with an adult coach. The Innovation Summit is hosted at Space Center Houston. The 2026 summit ran in April at that venue; the following cycle’s summit is announced by Space Center Houston each year. Conrad is entrepreneurship-forward. LBX asks for an artefact and a defence, not a pitch deck as the main product.

  • FIRST LEGO League / FTC

    FIRST LEGO League (ages roughly 4–16, depending on division) and FIRST Tech Challenge are team robotics programmes with seasons, game manuals and alliance play. They teach design under constraint and public demonstration. An FLL or FTC robot is not, by itself, an LBX project — but a team that asks a new question of their robot (sensing, mechanism, accessibility) can treat that question as an Engineering & Robotics entry.

  • World Young Inventors Exhibition

    WYIE is staged with the Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) in Kuala Lumpur and is aimed at young inventors, typically school students through early twenties. The 2026 edition ran 18–20 May at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. It is an exhibition of inventions with medals, not a season-long mentored research programme.

  • Global Invention Convention

    Invention Convention Worldwide (often searched as Global Invention Convention) is a K–12 invention-education network. US Nationals have been hosted with The Henry Ford. Students present a prototype, a logbook and a poster of the invention process. It is closest in spirit to Open Exploration and Engineering at LBX, with a stronger emphasis on invention education in schools.

Choosing without collecting logos

A student does not become more serious by stacking acronyms. Regeneron ISEF is the largest pre-university research fair in the affiliated-fair system; reaching Phoenix in May 2026 meant winning at one of 365 affiliates, joining more than 1,700 finalists from more than 60 countries, regions and territories, and competing for more than seven million dollars in awards. That is a specific machine. It is not improved by also putting the same poster on an LBX table unless the student wants a second, different conversation — a season with a mentor and a defence in a world city.

Thermo Fisher JIC (formerly Broadcom MASTERS) is the US middle-school research competition in the same Society for Science family. Conrad Challenge, ages 13–18, is invention plus entrepreneurship, with an Innovation Summit at Space Center Houston; April 2026 was a summit year at that venue. FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge are robotics seasons with game manuals. WYIE sits with ITEX in Kuala Lumpur as an exhibition of young inventions (18–20 May 2026 at KLCC). Invention Convention Worldwide is K–12 invention education with nationals associated with The Henry Ford. Each of those sentences is a different Saturday. Read the rules of the one you will actually attend.

LBX’s offer remains: four venues, middle and high school, Lead / Build / eXplore as a trained sequence, no ISEF affiliation. If a counsellor tells you otherwise, send them this page. We would rather lose a registration than gain one on a false map.

A short comparison, without a ranking

ISEF: affiliated-fair entry, high school research, one huge final, more than seven million dollars on the table in Phoenix in May 2026. JIC / former Broadcom MASTERS: US grades 6–8, same Society family, a finals week of research plus team challenges. Conrad: ages 13–18, teams of two to five, invention and a business model, summit at Space Center Houston. FIRST: game-based robotics seasons, alliances, coaches, pits. WYIE: exhibition medals in Kuala Lumpur beside ITEX. Invention Convention: K–12 invention process, logbook and prototype, US nationals with The Henry Ford. LBX: four cities, two divisions, six tracks, a season with two checkpoints, a rubric that names Lead, Build and eXplore, certificates you can check, no affiliate relationship with any of the above.

Pick the machine that matches the next nine months of your life, not the logo that looks busiest on a slide. If you can do two programmes without lying about dates, do two. If you cannot, do one well. We would rather see you at a February checkpoint with a thing that almost works than at three exhibitions with the same unfinished board.

Where LBX sits

Four world-city venues — Singapore, Hong Kong, London, New York — rather than a single convention-centre final. Middle school and high school in one organisation, with a Junior and Senior division and a shared rubric. A season that trains Lead, Build and eXplore as a sequence, with two checkpoints before anyone stands in front of a panel. Mentors who are not the judges. Certificates that can be checked in public.

LBX does not nominate anyone to ISEF. It does not require an affiliated science fair. It does not use FIRST game manuals. It does not replace Conrad’s summit. Students should read each programme’s own rules if they plan to enter more than one. Double-use of a dataset or a prototype is usually allowed if each report tells the truth about where the work was done; lying about dates or authorship is not.

If you are choosing only one programme this year, choose on pedagogy and logistics: do you want a season with a mentor and a written trail, in a city you can reach, with an oral defence at the end? That is the LBX offer. If you want a path through affiliated fairs toward Phoenix, that is ISEF’s offer, and you should start with a Society-affiliated fair, not with us.