Abolishing of awards?

[soap108]

Originally posted by Ken L

Even though I've been in a competition with the best offensive round award and lightest robot award, I just don't think they are as practical anymore. The best offensive round award was done by votes from teams, and not every one on the team pay that close attentions to the matches. And for the lightest robot award... most teams are very likely to get as much weight as possible on their robot so they will be more competitive, so it wouldn't be so wise reducing weight on the robot just to get this award.

I miss the "Featherweight in the Finals" award since our team won it twice- at the Motorola Midwest Regional in 1997 (~108 lbs) and 1999 (~111 lbs).

...but besides that...

I think this was a great engineering award. In the real world, especially here in cel-phone land, size and weight are key differentiators in the market place. Ever wanted to go back to the brick cel-phone? Why not? Too bulky?

I'd like to see a new award, Fewest Amps Required or Energy Conservation Award. Basically somehow develop additional electronics to measure power consumption during your two minute match. Take an average or something after 5-10 matches and compare vs. other teams.

Perfecting this would be tough....what if a robot sits still for 2:00 each match- he wins the award.... There'd have to be more criteria, but hopefully you see the point.

The engineering awards should map to something comparable in the real-world. I think most do, but perhaps we can add more? Not that the judges don't have enough to do....

Remember they did add awards Website (team voted), and Regional Autodesk Visualization....

Also Engineering Inspiration is fairly new.

KA-108
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