Announcing the 2025 EDGE Awards

Every year, our EDGE Awards (formerly IDEA Awards) seek to highlight the influential and cutting-edge technological advancements shaping the engineering space, creating more robust, efficient and productive designs and solutions.

All products recognized by the EDGE Awards will have been launched between May 27, 2024 and May 5, 2025, to ensure we are looking at the latest developments in engineering.

The EDGE Awards are supported by the engineering-centric brands at Endeavor Business Media: Electronic Design, Machine Design, Microwaves & RF, and Power & Motion. New in 2025, three additional brands will be supporting the EDGE Awards—Control Design, Control and Automation World—amplifying the full scope of engineering coverage across all major disciplines and application spaces.

With the addition of the three new engineering brands supporting and promoting the EDGE Awards, we have introduced new categories to align with this expanded scope of coverage:

Additive Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping. 3D printing machines, materials and software, as well as interfaces to CAD and machine tools for post-processing
AI Data Analytics. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) hardware and software that incorporates—or is designed to improve—product quality, supply chain management and production throughput.
Cabling and Enclosures. Hardware meant to hold controls and electronics, as well as monitor the temperature, pressure, humidity, etc. inside the enclosure, such as terminal blocks and cabinet coolers.
Communications and Networks. Wireless and wired systems, modules and software that facilitate communication between chips, modules and systems, including I/O modules and cloud communications.
Computing Hardware, Software and Systems. Edge computing devices and interfaces, as well as the compute, storage and communication modules and systems used to analyze data and assist design engineers.
Design Tools and Software. EDA, CAD, CAM, CAE, digital twins, modeling and simulation software, as well as application tools and operating systems to assist the design engineer. This category also includes IDEs, compilers and middleware.
Electronic Components. Passive electronic components like capacitors, transistors or diodes, connectors, cables, antennas and switches.
Industrial Controllers. PLCs, PACs and IPCs.
Machine Vision and Inspection. Cameras, sensors, lenses, filters, lighting, frame grabbers, software and systems
Motion Control Components. Pneumatic, hydraulic and electric motion control components and systems, including actuators, cylinders, ball screws, motors and drives; accessories such as fasteners, bearings, gears, belts and chains; and also fluids, filters and compressed air systems.
Operations Software. MES, maintenance, connected worker/workflow and ERP.
Optical Components and Systems. This includes adaptive optics, optical materials (such as metamaterials), optical coatings, precision optics, micro-optics, lenses, mirrors, aspheres, prisms and freeform optics. This category also includes lighting products for machine vision applications.
Production Tools and Systems. This includes creation of chips, printed circuit boards, components and systems; all mechanical and machine tool operations; welding, soldering and adhesives focused on metal or component joining; and materials used to fasten and secure components.
Robotics. Single-axis and multi-axis robots for assembly, product inspection and supply chain use, as well as cobots, AGVs and other robotic transport vehicles. This also includes software related to robotics, including fleet management and robot operating systems.
Test, Measurement, Sensors and Software. Test and measurement equipment and sensors that measure electrical, photons, speed, temperature, vibration, positioning, dimensional accuracy, defect detection and other operational parameters, as well as the software needed to effectively analyze the sensor data.
Visualization. HMI, SCADA and dashboards.

Why Should You Participate in the 2025 EDGE Awards?

Participants of the EDGE Awards program receive coverage on our brand sites, exposure in our newsletters and recognition on our social platforms. Winners and honorees of each category receive additional promotion upon the award program’s conclusion and announcement in mid-September.

The submission that gets the most overall votes across all categories will receive the Leading Edge Award, our top designation.

All submissions are reviewed and voted on by the engineering audience of Electronic Design, Machine Design, Microwaves & RF, Power & Motion, Control Design, Control and Automation World. Any votes submitted by non-industry members are excluded from the final results.

How Can You Participate in the 2025 EDGE Awards?

If you have a product/component/system/solution/service that has launched between May 27, 2024 and May 5, 2025, you may nominate the product for consideration in any of the categories specified above.

Each entry is $595 if submitted by the early bird deadline of April 7, 2025, or $695 if submitted by May 5, 2025. There is no limit to the number of submissions an individual or company can enter.

To start an entry now, click here.

To review the EDGE Awards program details and review the categories, go here.