Currently in its 17th year, the form•Z Joint Study Program involves universities and some high schools worldwide. This is a program through which AutoDesSys Inc. subsidizes the learning of digital tools by offering the use of form•Z in academic departments that are interested in educating their students in the articulation of three dimensional forms.. At the end of each academic year AutoDesSys collects projects that were created through this program and publishes them in the annual form•Z Joint Study Report. This has evolved into an event that documents the development and progress, as well as the excitement generated by computer aided design and 3D modeling education in institutions of higher learning.

One of the traditions the program and its report have established is the presentation of annual awards for the exceptional work of deserving students. Nominated projects are presented to a distinguished jury comprised of five individuals outside of AutoDesSys, that are experts or theorists of computer aided design.  They are charged with selecting the award winners, in a setting that does not disclose names of the nominees or school affiliations, in the following categories: Architectural Design, Interior Design, Fabrication, Visualization/Illustration, and Animation.

All Awards of Distinction receive a form•Z RenderZone Plus license with one year technical support and updates, and one thousand dollars. The winners of Awards of Distinction are invited, expense paid, to attend the annual ACADIA conference, where the awards are officially announced. In addition, AutoDesSys waves the processing costs of a 10-seat JS license for the school the award recipients attended, during the next academic year. Honorable Mentions receive diplomas acknowledging the award and a oneyear user license.



The process: The projects of all the nominees are sent to the jurors as Acrobat documents on DVDs. Names and school affiliations are not included. The jurors return their selections for an award in  each category and with grades (0 to 10) for each of the rest of the projects. Selection of a project for an award receives a grade of 15. The grades are averaged and the one project from each category receiving the highest grade is selected for the award. Projects receiving an average grade of 9 or higher are selected for the honorable mentions. The jury is also asked to comment on why they selected these particular projects. Their comments are included with the displays of the award of distinction and honorable mention winning projects.