Registration!
Teacher and student 2026 SASEF Registration will open this fall!
2026 SASEF Dates
SASEF will be hosted on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus. Judging will be held on March 24, 2026, in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Building.
The Awards Ceremony will be held at 6:00 PM on March 31, 2026, in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Building. The Agriculture and Natural Resource Building is located on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus at 2431 Joe Johnson Dr, Knoxville, TN 37996.
The fair will be held in person as it has traditionally been done with students at their posters during judging. In addition to the in-person aspect, all students will be asked to upload a digital copy of their poster to a virtual platform. Judges will use this platform to access posters and project information.
Attend a Virtual Science Club Meeting!
Attend Virtual Science Club meetings for free! Click here to learn more about this club that meets twice per month. Meetings include guest speakers and small-group breakouts hosted by volunteer mentors. The meetings provide support to students working on 2026 SASEF STEM projects.
Congratulations to all the 2025 SASEF Award Winners!
Check out all the award winners at 2025 SASEF by clicking here. Thank you to all students, teachers, judges, and parents that invested their time in the 2025 event!
About the Southern Appalachian Science & Engineering Fair
The Southern Appalachian Science & Engineering Fair (SASEF) is an annual event traditionally held during the last week of March or the first week of April on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus. Students are invited to present their research covering a variety of categories in STEM. There are two divisions of competition — Junior Division for middle school students, grades 6 – 8, and Senior Division for high school students, grades 9 – 12.
The top two Senior Division winners and their teachers will qualify to attend the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which is traditionally held in mid-May.
Thermo Fisher Scientific sponsors nation’s premier middle school STEM Competition. More information is on Society of Science’s website found here.
In 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SASEF was hosted in a virtual format.
Region
SASEF consists of the 23-county region as shown on the map below. If you are not in one of these counties visit this page here for more information.
