About the Engineering award and some more

Competition Awards
1

**Hi everyone!
**
I’m NXTDOR04, 16.5 years old and I’m a member of a new rookie team.
I would like if you would help me but first of all – I’m sorry if I have some writing or grammar mistakes (English is not my first language).
**~NO SPAM~
**I’m not sure if I posted the message in the right place and if my message is good by the laws of this site so please sorry. I hope that everything is correct.

So… I’d Like to get help:
I read that: “***Unlike the Chairman’s Award, the Engineering Inspiration Award has no formal submission nor presentation to the judges. In fact, many teams who do not submit for the Chairman’s Award win the Engineering Inspiration. The judges get their information from other teams, students and mentors, and robot performance.***” FIRSTWIKI
My Question is that how the judges would know what the team had done ( like what activities) for competing the award?
Do you have some tips? Do you know where I can find some details about what I have to do for competing the Chairman’s and Engineering inspiration awards?
Thanks a lot

NXTDOR04

2

Nxt,
The judges will come and interview teams throughout regional and Championship events for the various judged awards. They only want to talk to students so adults should take a giant step out of the pit when they show up. The judges will ask a variety of questions so you should have a few students who are ready to talk to them about the team and the robot.

3

Hi Al and thanks for the quick response!
I didn’t quiet understand:
The judges will come among all the teams at the pit area while the regional competition and they just ask some of the team members some questions about the activities of the team for the Engineering inspiration / Chairman’s awards?
Do you have some examples of questions which the judges ask? They ask specific like “What the team done for the Engineering award?” or what?
And why you wrote “so adults should take a giant step out of the pit when they show up”? What did you mean?
And BTW, the mentor can answer to some of the questions or just the team members (the students)?

I hope I wrote everything clearly.

4

Typically, two sets of judges visit your pit at the regionals. They come by usually before lunch to interview your team. They like to talk to the students about the team. This where Al mentioned the mentors should stand back and let the students present the information about their team. Some judges may also return to your pit for additional information after lunch. Try to always have some students in the pits who are comfortable talking with judges.

One set of judges will be asking question about your robot, things like did you make use of innovative controls or design techniques, how you built the robot, or how you programmed it. They will also be looking at the overall quality of your robot, pit, and cart to see if it is clean, organized, and expresses a complete package.

The other set of judges will be asking questions about your team. They will be looking for things like a complete and expressive image for your team, your team spirit, business plans, how you organize your team, etc.

The judges then return to the judging room to discuss the teams and identify which teams will be getting the various awards. The judged awards that are debated during this process includes the Engineering Inspiration award.

The Regional Chairman’s Award is a bit different. First, it is only available for teams in their second year and beyond, by definition of the award, rookies are not eligible, although they do have Rookie Inspiration and Rookie All Star which parallel the RCA and EI awards. The RCA award is based on a submitted essay, a short video on DVD, and the RCA interview done at one regional with a small part of the team (up to 3 team members IIRC).

So, if you want to see all the awards that are available at a regional, check out this link:
http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Robotics_Programs/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2012_Assets/2012%20FRC%20Regional%20%20Awards.pdf

For some great tips in regards to judging, check out the Awards Resources on the NEMO site:
http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm

5

Hey rsisk! WOW, thanks a lot!
Now it’s more clear to me.
I still would like to know about the chiarman’s award (not a rookie’s award).
How’s it going, Where present the video to all the Judges?

6

The Chairman’s Award is judged primarily on the written essay and the interview/presentation at the event; IIRC, the video is required for submission, but not necessarily viewed. One thing to remember: If you’re a NASA Grant recipient, (and my memory is correct) having a Chairman’s submission is required. (It also helps your case for Rookie All-Star.)

Rookie All-Star has no required submissions. However, having things like a Chairman’s Award essay can help you out tremendously.

In addition to Richard’s links, you may want to read http://usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Robotics_Programs/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2012_Assets/06_Awards.pdf It’s Section 6 of the Administrative Manual, and has the complete list of information on all the awards. Pay special attention to sections 6.2 (all awards and short descriptions) and 6.4 (Chairman’s Award).

7

Hi!
thanx everyone!

What questions the judges would ask?
They will ask about activities of the team, about the team, about the robot, the electorinic or what?
And how am I supposed to answer them?

BTW,
When are they supposed to come? They can even come during the games or they have a specific time when they are walking between all the teams and asking them?

8

nxt,
The judges will interview teams on both Friday and Saturday. There are usually different judges for different awards. The tech judges will ask about robot design, innovations, problems and your teams work arounds. Other judges will observe how you interact as a team, how you handle team issues like fundraising, what obstacles you might have overcome, etc. The judges don’t have a set list of questions. Your answers might drive the questions they actually ask of your students. Judges understand that you have matches and will return if you are not in your pit. Judges will also observe teams in the stands or walking through the venue. They also will watch your interaction with other teams on and off the field. Generally, judges want to wrap up most of their team duties by lunch on Saturday so that they can deliberate which team should be given an award. There are generally about 20 judges at an event.

9

All of the above. What I’ve found is that usually they’re more statements than questions, such as “Alright, tell us how your robot works,” or “Can you talk to us about your control system?” They won’t always ask about a specific component - it will likely be general, and it’s up to you to highlight the unique features of the robot. The non-robot questions are similar: “What does your team do in the fall?” “Have you worked with any rookie teams?” (in your case, it will probably be “veteran teams”) “Tell us a bit about your team’s history.” One set of judges will always ask for your team’s business plan, if you have one (and you should, and it should be easily accessible)

The questions won’t be blunt about a particular award. The judges won’t say “What have you done for the EI award?”. Someone who has actually been a judge can probably clarify on this, but I believe that thorough deliberation occurs after judges have seen all of the teams, and the decision usually comes from a collaboration of opinions, especially with the EI award, since the winner usually is apparent for a variety of different reasons.

The safety judges will be wearing green polos, and will want to talk to your safety captain (if the safety captain is not in the pit because they’re getting the drive team to/from the field, or similar, tell them that and they will come back later). They will ask questions about how you implement safety in your shop and community, as well as at competitions.

The most important thing is to be honest with them. If you don’t have something that they ask about (an integrated safety program, a business plan, fundraising plans), don’t pretend that you do.

10

If your team is big enough, you should always have a student in your pit, even during the match. That way, if judges come by, you could explain you have a match and answer any questions you can then. A good response if a judge asks a question that you do not know the answer is to direct them to someone who does. Example: " I don’t know that much about the programming as I worked on the electrical part of the robot myself, but John over there did programming - let me get him for you."

It’s also a good idea to have a handout with a picture of your robot and/or team (so the judges can remember you easily) outlining specific items about your robot and team that you want to emphasize to the judges.

11

Presentation titled “Judging 101” might be helpful for some of these questions.
http://www.mdfirst.org/programs/first-robotics-competition/baa/2011-frc-training-day.html

And since people are trying to be helpful in answering your questions, it would be great to update your user profile with your team number and where you are geographically located.