List of high school competitions by Chang Liu

Chang Liu
Jun 1
6 min read

Updated: Jun 4

A most complete list of high school and middle school talent competitions in areas such as piano, math, robotics, coding, etc.

Most complete list of high school and middle school competitions in areas of math, CS, piano and other non-sports areas. The list is compiled by Dr. Chang Liu of Stembay Learning Center.

If you are an event organizer and your event is not on the list, please email Chang Liu.

If you are a potential participant of events and request help, please also email Chang Liu.

Piano competitions

Chicago area high school competitions

Chicago area math competition

ISMTA Piano competitions

https://ismta.org/ismta-piano-competition/

New Music School

https://www.newmusicschool.com/competitions

Chicago International music competition

https://www.cimcusa.org/

Illinois Music Association State Olympic Competition

https://illinoismusicassociation.org/

Illinois School of Music Clara Rolland Piano competition

https://music.illinois.edu/about-us/resources/scholarship-competitions-and-awards/clara-rolland-piano-competition/

MNTA competition (music teacher national association)

https://ismta.org/mtna-competitions/

Downers Grove Music Club Piano featival and competition

https://downersgrovemusicclub.org/pianofest.html

Solo competitions

Society of American Musicians (SAM)

Chicago Area of Music Teachers Association

Chinese Fine Arts Society

Music Teachers National Association

Northshore Music Teachers Association

Northwest Suburban Music Teachers Association

Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition and Festival

American Protege International Competition

Concerto competitions

Walgreens National Concerto Competition

DePaul Concerto Competition

Emilio Del Rosario Foundation Competition

Chicago Amateur Piano Competition

NMS Concerto Competition

Chamber music competitions

Discover National Chamber Competition

Fischoff

Chicago National Youth Competition for Piano Duos

Midwest National Chamber Music Competition

Berliner International Music Competition

Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival

MTNA Chamber Music Competition

Math Competitions

Chicago area competitions

Chicago Junior Math League

https://www.cjml.org/

North Suburban Math League

https://nsml.org/

Hackathons

Robotics competitions

First Robotics Competition

https://www.firstinspires.org/

LEGO robotics platform

FLL v FTC platforms. LEGO spike Prime

VEX robotics

https://www.vexrobotics.com/

Competition https://www.vexrobotics.com/competition

Offering VED IQ, EDR and V5 systems.

WRO, world robotics olympiad

https://wro-association.org/

Best Robotics competition

https://bestrobotics.org/

KITS FTC, FLL, Spike elemental, Spike prime

There is no single creator of the FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) robotics kit. Instead, FIRST partners with a few select official suppliers who design and manufacture approved parts, starter systems, and control hubs for teams: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

REV Robotics: Maker of the popular REV DUO building system, control hubs, and comprehensive starter bundles.
Studica Robotics: Producer of the official FTC Starter Kits featuring diverse structural component colors.
AndyMark: Creator of the Robits build system and core kits designed for accessibility and rapid iteration.
goBILDA: Widely used supplier offering specialized FTC motion components and structural kits. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

ABU Robocon, asian pacific competition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABU_Robocon

South Jersey Robotics (SJR)

https://www.sjrobotics.com/

Robotics World Championship

https://www.vexrobotics.com/official-path

REC Foundation, robotics and aerial drone

https://recf.org/

World drone cup

https://teknofest.org/en/competitions/world-drone-cup/

Automate show

https://www.automateshow.com/ Student challenge

Chicago area

Chicago robotics invitational

https://chicagoroboticsinvitational.com/

FIRST illinois robotics

https://www.firstillinoisrobotics.org/

Illinois 4H robotics competition, organized by U of I extension

https://4h.extension.illinois.edu/events/state-events/illinois-4-h-state-robotics-competition

Lake country robotics competition

https://www.clcillinois.edu/news-and-events/events/lake-county-robotics-competition

STEM Robotics Introduction

Create and Learn has a list of competitions

https://www.create-learn.us/blog/stem-robotics/

complete list of chicago piano competitions — Youth piano competition.

Complete list of Chicago math competitions. — Middle school and high school math competition.

Quant and stock trading competitions

Quant trading strategies

CME group trading challenge

https://www.cmegroup.com/education/trading-challenge

International Quant Championship

https://www.worldquant.com/brain/iqc/

Quant League

https://www.quantconnect.com/league/2025-q4/

List of competition from Christina Qian

Kaggle info on quant and stock trading

Numerai: og stock market data competition https://numer.ai/

Synth: volatility modelling on bittensor (approx $50,000 per week in rewards) https://www.synthdata.co/

NeurIPS: more ml focussed https://neurips.cc/

Kaggle: they had a great comp in the past with Jane Street https://www.kaggle.com/

High school camps (prestigious and local)

Prestigious high school summer camps

Northwestern HS program

University of Illinois summer research programs

https://wyse.grainger.illinois.edu/summer-programs

https://4h.extension.illinois.edu/events/state-events/illini-summer-academies

The ten that impress admission officers

28 science competitions

10 science fairs and competitions

MIT Research science institute

https://math.mit.edu/research/highschool/rsi/

Stanford Medicine summer program

https://simr.stanford.edu/

Stanford University Math Camp

https://spcs.stanford.edu/programs/stanford-university-mathematics-camp-sumac

Awards and scholars

GE-Reagan scholarship

https://www.reaganfoundation.org/about-us/press-releases/reagan-foundation-and-ge-announce-10-recipients-of-40-000-scholarships-1

Non-trivial Org

http://www.non-trivial.org

Dr. Chang Liu list of non trivial problems and pursuits

Ideas related to STEM and AI

What is AI really thinking?

Physical AI challenges

Edge AI computing with analog

How to make AI understand logic and cause-effect

Secrets of nerve systems

Finding the source of memory loss

Ideas related to society

How to care for seniors with memory loss

How to make senior productive

How to eliminate cars?

A new form of social network

Gadgets and products

Multi channel blue tooth for local area sensor network

Dr. Chang Liu list of entrepreneurship ideas for startup competitions

High impact ideas for hackathon and other competitions. Remember, most "inventions" typically become a hobby. An "innovation" without competition is also a hobby. If you want to start a business, identify a business to start. Not just an idea, not just a product, not just smarts.

There are brilliant ideas all the time, everywhere. There are big headaches and problems everywhere, deeply buried in markets and supply chain.

Formula for high impact ideas

Make something expensive cheap

Make something rare wide spread

Make something fast

Make something difficult easy

Invent something really good and high quality

Build a market place

Contemporary ideas

Contact Dr. Chang Liu and request DM conversation. The email is chang liu @ stembay dot org.