[OccamzRazor]

Alrighty, some feedback on this CADathon! Generally, I think this is awesome and it successfully helped introduce some newer students on my team and other teams to what to expect week 1 for next season. It probably is the best way to hit the ground running. I saw at least 4-5 teams from NC and I would like to do this again with more students and hopefully more teams next run if there is another event in the winter.

I will break down some pros and cons I saw over the last 3 days. I truly believe there are more pros than cons to the first run through here.

PROS -
-The game was different and the objectives/rules were crystal clear.
-The challenge was easily presented and very possible to do in the given time frame
-Sam, your responses were quick and responsive the entire time. This was important and you followed through.
-Allowing the teams to communicate was a massive plus.
-This was perfectly set up to introduce new people to robot design even if they had minimal CAD experience.
-The judges were the right people for the job and this drew my students into participating.
-This game choice effectively challenged the students to think about COG and drive train capabilities. Most of the robots we saw could honestly not get into or out of the ocean without tipping. This is a very important lesson!
-I know that the teams I had participating can now more quickly model a working drive system and complete accurate concept sketches.
-I had two students who had never built a robot in CAD each turn in a nearly complete robot design with their veteran partners - a very effective first try at this!
-The team that won truly had what I thought was one of the best looking robot of the bunch and had the most completed features. Impressive for 3 days!

CONS - Mostly little stuff that could make a better experience.

-Allow the judges to hear what the contestants have to say about their design (their description) or at least let them submit a small essay. This is how FRC works at competition and I feel the judges did not understand many of the concepts the teams presented. This would also allow easier judging scrutiny, a better understanding of each design, elimination of the teamspeak confusion, and present a better chance for student learning. More interaction is always better and I think it would make it easier on you to host!
-I give a lot of slack and understanding here because of the computer issues but remember, these kids worked for 3 days on this. The broadcast was very long and only 4-5 teams heard anything from the judges they wanted to hear from. The scores should be presented at the beginning to allow the students to know how they did and make the trip home if they need to. My teams waited from 8-9:30pm to never find out how we did plus we had been at it since 9am that same day. Some students were fairly disappointed at the end to not hear a lot about their designs if at all after those 3 days at the grind stone.
-Rule clarification on how many renders are allowed, many teams thought only one rendered photo was allowed so that is all they submitted!
-Any team who did not submit CAD for a CADathon should not be able to place. A team who submitted only a photo should not be able to place and best all of the teams who did indeed submit a cad model. Not to discredit any team of course because their renderings did look like a solid robot design, but you could not see at all what was inside the models. Ranking means little in the competition like this but students do pride themselves after a long haul.
-Better means to upload or a longer period allowed to upload the models and renderings. That was rough but also encourages the teams to submit earlier at the same time.
-Show all of the photos of the robots so we know which robot the judges are speaking about. (I think you were doing that but then technology failed)
-Condense the rules down to apply more to the CADathon. Some rules the teams intended to follow for fear they would be disqualified IE they took it more seriously than they should have.

All in all, for the first shot at this it was undoubtedly a success! Props for coming up with this.

Robbie Hoyler