How do you feel about how the Autodesk award winners were decided?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

It's not my fault CD dumped the spel chek!

Welcome home, Ed.

[Robert Thacker-]

One thing I have a problem with is Autodesk not updatting their website. Their "FIRSTbase" still says that there are only finalists and it doesn't say who won. Even in the team page, it still says "Submit your entry today."

If a company pushes a new aspect of the award, they should step behind what new changes they decide to do.

[JasJ002]

I like the idea of adults being able to vote (because then I would be able to), but then teams could just contact all of their alumni and get them to do it.

[Robert Thacker-]

Personally, I think the lesser of two evils would be each team gets one vote.

[teammember_342]

Whoever started this thread should first write "decided" correctly!!!
Great job for another Autodesk award win Team 107 three times in a row!.
Anyway, this year was my first time on an FRC team and it was very interesting. I joined the Subteam of design on Team 342 because I am interested in Autodesk. I heard the process of last year was better so why change it. If this was alright as it was last year then let the Autodesk judges pick the winner.

[Lea103]

Originally Posted by teammember_342

Great job for another Autodesk award win Team 107 three times in a row!.

Um, team 103 won, not 107.

Thanks for the support. Good luck next year 347.

[Evenstar_342]

I know that this is digging up an old issue (and probably a lot of angst ), but Autodesk FIRSTbase recently sent out an e-mail survey asking for your imput on this season's awards voting and other services offered by FIRSTbase. I responded to the survery with a lot of the same viewpoints that I've espoused in this thread, and I'm just curious to see how many people have done the same and whether you think if there is a big enough response to do away with the voting or change some aspect of the competition whether something will change?

[Mike Schroeder]

My opinion is that Autodesk/FIRST should see if they can aquire volunteers from companies like Pixar or Dreamworks to judge the award on the championship level, i also think that they should use a pre-decided set of metrics released to teams at kickoff and that the award should be judged on technical stuff not which one has the prettiest colors...

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by "Big Mike"

My opinion is that Autodesk/FIRST should see if they can aquire volunteers from companies like Pixar or Dreamworks to judge the award on the championship level, i also think that they should use a pre-decided set of metrics released to teams at kickoff and that the award should be judged on technical stuff not which one has the prettiest colors...

We are sponsored by DreamWorks and several of their animators mentor our team.

I'd be pretty happy if they were recruited to judge the AVA awards


Having a rubric would really help. But as with all movies, the real deciding factor will always lie with the storyboard and theme. If you go back and review the winning AVA's you'll see that they all flowed beautifully, and had great themes.

You can have technical excellence and a bad animation.

[Robert Thacker-]

I agree. That's something I've been trying to tell my team for years.

[Evenstar_342]

Professional judges would be a great idea! If Autodesk is concerned about the competition taking up too much of their time, that would be a great solution.

[JasJ002]

They had professionals in the past judge the awards, but getting professionals to judges from a company like Pixar may not be the best idea simply because the animation is not the most important part of the entry. You supposed to utilized Inventor into the design factor. What I've been thinking lately is to make a presentation mandatory for the top three teams, and you are simply permited computer files and a projector to display your product to a team of engineers how your system works. In the real engineering world this is how things are done.

[Robert Thacker-]

Now I like that idea!

[Joe G.]

I really like the idea of having FIRST participants vote, but obviously the team size issue is a problem. So here are my four ideas:

1. Limit voting to something like five per team, so that larger teams don't have a advantage, but also allows some individuality

2. Instead of voting "that one is the best," rank them from one to five.

3. DEFINATLY have the award at the regional level, as Hachiban VIII said "to give the little guy a chance"

4. I'm not sure if this is practical, but maybe move the award submision dedline back a few days. Many teams simply don't have enough members so that a few people can be fully dedicated to Inventor work during the build season.