The Perfect Pitch competition is open only to Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) undergraduates, Masters, and PhD students, all competing for a first-place $5,000 cash prize. By asking students to answer the following three questions in 90 seconds—what real-life problem their research addressed, how they solved it in a unique way, and what impact it would have for society and in achieving their Center’s mission—they learn a succinct way of talking about their research in the context of societal needs and the broader impact of their success.