Tech
Galaxy
Award
tga.org
Read this before you write to us.
This is the long FAQ. A shorter set still lives on the Contact page for people who arrive from a phone search. Everything below is the version we would give a teacher in a thirty-minute call. If your question is not here, email info@tga.org — we read every inbound message.
Eligibility & teams.
Who can apply?
Secondary-school and university students. We do not publish a rigid age band because school systems do not share one. We assess readiness against the work: can this team hold a systems question, revise under critique, and defend in English? If you are unsure, send a short note about the students' stage with your expression of interest.
Do we have to apply through a school?
No. Schools, learning centres, and independent teams of eight are all eligible. Independent teams still need one adult lead who travels with the group. Homeschool cooperatives and mixed-school teams are welcome if the adult lead can take safeguarding responsibility.
Why exactly eight students?
Eight is large enough for real role differentiation and small enough that nobody can hide. The Constellation award exists because we have watched two stars carry six silent teammates in other programmes. The number is not a branding choice. It is a pedagogical constraint. We do not accept sevens or nines "because someone dropped out at the airport" without a conversation; write to us if a confirmed team has a genuine emergency.
Can a team mix secondary and university students?
Yes, if the adult lead can justify the mix and if every student can participate in the defense. We have seen mixed teams work when the university students are mentors-in-the-room rather than the only people who speak. We have seen them fail when the younger students become an audience. Tell us how you will prevent the second pattern.
Is prior AI or coding experience required?
No. TGA is not a coding bootcamp. Some strong past projects came from students who had never shipped software; some came from competitive programmers. We look for the ability to hold a real question, to reason in public, and to revise. If your team's only AI experience is a chatbot hobby, that is not a disqualification. If your team's only AI experience is a chatbot hobby and you cannot explain what the model cannot do, that is a problem you will meet on day four.
What English level do you need?
Working proficiency. The defense is in English. Bilingual posters and prototypes are allowed (Chinese, Spanish, French, Hindi, and others). Spoken Q&A is not. Teams with mixed fluency should plan speaking roles in advance. We do not run a parallel Chinese-language defense; we do run a full Chinese-language website so families can read us.
How many teams, and from where?
Twelve teams per cohort, from any country. We support visa documentation with invitation letters. We do not reserve national quotas. We do try, each year, not to fill the room with twelve teams from a single city. Diversity of context is part of the pedagogy: a housing question looks different to a student from Singapore than to a student from a city with no public housing to walk through.
Can a student apply as an individual?
Not to the intensive itself. TGA is a team sport. If you are a strong student without a team, write to us; we occasionally introduce solo applicants to forming teams, but we do not promise a match, and we never assign strangers into a team of eight without everyone's consent.
Are postgraduate students eligible?
No. The window is secondary school and undergraduate (or equivalent) university study. Master's and doctoral students may apply to mentor or to join the panel, not to compete.
Can a school send two teams?
You may submit two expressions of interest. We will not take two teams from the same school in the same year except in rare cases where the teams are genuinely distinct (different campuses, different age bands, different problem worlds) and the cohort still has room. Assume one.
The week, the brief, the defense.
When and where is TGA 2026?
The intensive is 6–12 July 2026 in Singapore, on a Tier-1 university campus. The exact building is confirmed to accepted teams with accommodation and transit details. Applications open September 2025 and close in October. See Format for the full 2026 brief cycle.
What is a "brief cycle"?
It is the year-long arc around the seven days: expression of interest, selection, publication of the urban brief, role confirmation, pre-reading, the intensive, the defense, certificate issuance, and the public record. The seven days are the visible part. The cycle is the whole.
Will we know the urban problem in advance?
You will know the domain in January when the brief is published — the kinds of urban systems we will put on the table. You will not receive a finished problem statement. Day one is for scoping. Faculty veto vague framings. This is deliberate. A team that arrives with a polished deck about a city they have not walked will have a harder week than a team that arrives ready to look.
What does the defense actually look like?
Ten minutes to present, three minutes of panel Q&A, on the record. Judges probe assumptions, not summaries. Every team member must be prepared to speak; the panel may address a question to a student who has not yet talked. Full protocol is on the Format page. Rehearsal is day six. The ceremony is the evening of day seven.
Is this a STEM fair?
No. Read The Field. Science fairs reward research exhibitions. TGA rewards a defensible urban intervention under time pressure, with AI in the reasoning and a prototype on the table. Different sport.
Do NUS, NTU, HKU, and Cambridge run TGA?
No. Scholars from those universities contribute as mentors and panelists, as already described on this site. That is a statement about the people in the room, not a claim that the universities jointly own or accredit the award. Do not write "official partnership with Cambridge" on a school poster. Write "mentored by scholars from…" if you need a sentence, and only after you have been accepted.
What should students bring?
A laptop they can actually use, a notebook, comfortable shoes for field days, and the pre-reading annotated. We provide datasets, prototyping materials, meals, and a bed. We do not provide a personality. The adult lead should bring copies of consent forms and any medication plans.
What about meals, rooms, and safeguarding?
Cohort housing on or adjacent to campus; twin or triple rooms by gender; three meals a day with halal, vegetarian, and allergy-aware options confirmed before arrival. Every participant needs signed parental or guardian consent if under the age of majority in their home jurisdiction and in Singapore. Staff are background-checked under Singapore safeguarding protocols. The operating ratio is at least one TGA adult to eight students, plus each team's own lead. A full safeguarding policy is shared with accepted teams, not posted as a marketing PDF.
Can parents attend?
The intensive is a closed working cohort. Parents do not sit in seminars or defenses. Family may attend the public portion of the closing ceremony if space allows; we will say so in the logistics pack. Singapore is a small island — sightseeing is easy on either side of the week. It is not part of the programme.
Fees, bursaries, certificates.
What does the fee cover?
Seven days of programming, mentorship, field-trip transport in Singapore, cohort accommodation, three meals daily, materials and datasets, a TGA certificate of participation, and a TGA-CERT identity for every participant. It does not cover international airfare, travel insurance, or visa fees. We issue invitation letters.
Do you publish a price on this page?
The programme fee for the coming cohort is stated in the Stage 1 form, not on the marketing site, because it moves with housing contracts. If a public number is what you need before you write, email us with the subject "Fee · [Year]" and we will send the current figure.
Bursaries?
Yes. We do not publish a cap. Each cohort reserves a portion of seats for need-based aid, which can extend to the full programme fee for accepted teams from under-resourced contexts. Indicate interest at Stage 1; documentation is requested at Stage 3. Bursaries do not cover airfare except in exceptional cases we will name in writing.
Refunds?
See Terms. In outline: an accepted team that withdraws early enough for an alternate to take the seat will receive a partial refund minus unrecoverable housing costs. A withdrawal after the visa window, or a no-show, is not refundable. We are more flexible when the cause is a medical or political emergency than when the cause is a change of mind.
Is the certificate "recognized"?
TGA is a young programme. Certificates are verifiable on this site and carry a TGA-CERT code. We are not a credit-bearing IB, AP, or university module. Admissions officers can check any code at verify.html. That is the honest claim. Anything louder is not us speaking.
How do I check a certificate?
Enter the code on Verify. If the result is unexpected, email us with the code in the subject line. Do not post other people's codes on social media. Read the explainer for what the document is and is not.
Will you name winners on this site?
We publish honors as categories and, where we have consent, as cohort-year citations. We do not invent named student winners, and we do not put minors' full names in marketing copy without a signed release. If you see a named "TGA champion" on a third-party page, write to us before you believe it.
Can we use the TGA logo?
Accepted teams may use the logo on internal team materials during the cycle. Schools may not imply that TGA has endorsed the school. Press may use the logo with attribution. See Terms. When in doubt, ask.
TGA and other competitions.
Are you affiliated with ISEF or iGEM?
No. Regeneron ISEF 2026 is in Phoenix, 9–15 May. The iGEM 2026 Grand Jamboree is at the Paris Convention Centre, 13–16 November (the 2025 Jamboree in Paris, 28–31 October, drew 4,600+ participants, 400+ teams, 50+ countries). We respect those rooms. We are not inside them. See The Field for a full landscape reading, including the James Dyson Award, Imagine Cup, the World Scholar’s Cup, and urban/smart-city challenges generally.
Can a student do ISEF in May and TGA in July?
Calendars permit it. Recycling an ISEF poster as a TGA prototype does not. If you do both, do two different pieces of work.
Is TGA "better" than a science fair?
No. It is different. Science fairs are the right instrument for original research exhibited on a poster. TGA is the right instrument for a week of urban systems work ending in a viva. Teachers who try to rank them are answering the wrong question.
Still stuck?
Write. Use a subject line we can route: Applications, Partner, Press, Verify, Bursary, or The Field.
Email info@tga.org Start an application