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Originally Posted by T. Hoffman
I think you've struck upon an important component of getting recognized for awards - effective and energetic communication. The team members who spend the most time interacting with judges should be those who are best equipped to "tell the story" of your program, your people, and your robot. Some teams will only permit students to perform this task, and while they are certainly the ones who get the most out of your team and benefit the most from speaking to these professionals, they aren't the only ones with great stories to tell and experiences to share. We feel we have a good balance of participation among all our team members, and therefore, we've found good success in involving multiple people in our judge conversations. We often encourage mentors, teachers, parents, sponsors, and alumni to join the students in sharing their thoughts with the judges if they have relevant information and ideas to contribute to the current topic of conversation. I believe this diversity in communication has helped earn us a few more awards than we would have otherwise received had students alone handled all the talking.
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I definetly agree that having only one or two people talk to the judges can hamper your chances at winning an award. What we do on our team is we make sure that there is always at least one student from each major subteam involved in the conversation with the judges. For example, one time the judges asked me how our shooter worked, and since I designed the shooter, I knew how to explain the mechanism in specific and concise terms. But when they asked the question "How did you program it to track the goal with the camera?", I didn't stumble on my words trying to explain what little I knew about the progamming. Instead I directed their attention straight to our head programmer, who, as planned, was standing right next me. This makes for a much smoother and efficient conversation, which is what will make a good impression on the judges.
Another thing to remember is that Judges aften come around to the pits during lunch. So make sure that you always have your main judging crew near your pit to make sure you don't miss a Judge. At Sacromento, we ate lunch in the stands above the pits and whenever we saw a Judge come by we rushed down to our pit to make sure the Judge didn't move on to the next team.
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Originally Posted by T. Hoffman
48 has never won a regional in its entire 9 year existence
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It's been 10 for us, but we always seem to be getting closer. Last year was our first time even getting to the finals, and then this year we got to the finals as well as went 10-0 in qualifiers at SVR. We keep building off of past success and learning from our past mistakes, and the results are very noticeable. One thing our team hasn't had a drought in though is awards. I don't know why, but we always seem to win something or another at every regional. This year we actually upped it and won two at each regional.
I think that explaining exactly how your robot works and emphasizing how it is creative and unique is key to winning the judges vote. If you come across as boring or unprepared, the judges won't remember you, and most likely won't give you an award for your efforts.
Mike C.