Are awards given at random somewhat?

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I have one question. If a team wins an award one year, and are the most deserving of the same award the next year, are the judges inclined to give it to someone else to "spread the wealth"?

I don't see that happening a whole lot, but I see a spreading of wealth within the same year. While a team may have the best drivetrain and best control system, instead of winning the delphi's driving tomorrows tech AND the innovation in control, they might win a more blanket technical award, like motorola quality, so that other teams can win those awards. So occasionally, the teams most deserving of an award are bypassed to be given a "higher honor" or a different award. I view the awards in a few different "categories" in which it is very rare for a team to win more than one award in each category. Technical awards (Motorola quality, driving tomorrow tech, industrial design...) , spirit awards (team spirit, image, sportsmanship...), rookie awards, Competition awards, and Inspiration awards (EI and Chairmans). There a few awards that don't fit in, AVA, and website, as a team could win those both (although it doesnt usually happen), and WFA. There is also a "wild card" set of the judges awards and Xerox Creativity as they can fit into any of the other categories, and a team will usually not win multiple of those either.

The award descriptions also include that the students are able to verbally explain and demonstrate the function concisely and convincingly. So sometimes if a team has an amazing invention, but cant explain why and how it works very well, they wont win the award. Also, by the nature of how the awards are selected, you have to convince the judges to talk the other judges into giving you the award(s), so by being able to give them visual aids to take with them seemed to help us alot. One of the judges in Annapolis even told us that one of the biggest factors in us winning the Xerox creativity award was our "Take-aways" (hand-outs for the judges), that helped explain our drive and control systems, as well as our robot.