Hello! My team recently won the Engineering Inspiration Award at one of our two district competitions and this makes us eligible to compete for the award at our District Championship next week. I am trying to find out if there is anything our team needs to do to compete for this award there, other than just show up. If anyone knows and could tell me, it would be greatly appreciated!
I believe you have a small presentation with the judges in the room at some point. We did this last year at NE DCMP, but I wasn’t on the subteam that prepared for that, so I’m not 100% sure.
Just what I was afraid of…why don’t they tell us these things after we win it? I don’t mind my team having to give a presentation but I would at least like some time to prepare one. Thanks!
Some of this varies from district to district based on the preferences of the District’s Head Judge Advisor.
My recomendation, reach out to the folks at MAR about this to get a full answer. They’ll make sure you know exactly what is happening for your DCMP.
At least in IN, there’s no formal presentation like that, but it may be good to prepare students to speak and answer questions anyway. 2197 is creating a binder with pictures as a visual for the judges.
In Michigan, they had us do a whole presentation at MICMP last year (very much like a CA presentation), but not in 2014. Discuss with your district leadership, because it seems they’re the ones who make the rules in regards to this stuff.
We’re in the same boat as you guys, and also haven’t heard anything back yet from MAR regarding the format of the presentation. Hopefully MAR sends out some info after Montgomery ends this weekend.
Last year was 1058’s first time winning EI, so we were in the same boat with not being familiar with the presentation. For us at NE champs, it was a more relaxed interview with the judges. We brought about eight of our students in (I believe you can bring up to ten), some with vast mechanical knowledge of our robot and some with knowledge and experience with our outreach events. I would say the best way to prepare for this presentation is to practice answering any questions that the judges may have, both involving questions about the robot and your engineering process as well as your team in general. It’s a much more relaxed environment than a Chairman’s presentation. Good luck and congratulations on winning EI at your district event!
Actually, I take back what I said! We got an email from the Indiana Judge Adviser saying that we are, in fact, doing a presentation for our district champs this year. If there’s an official presentation, they should have informed you already.
We just sent an e-mail to someone at MAR asking if they know if there is a presentation and if so, what format. If we hear anything back, I’ll post it here so you guys know too.
I just received this e-mail from someone at MAR regarding the award:
“The Engineering Inspiration award judging at FAM Champs is a presentation style, as opposed to the pit judging process at qualifying events. The judging criteria remains the same, however, the questions from Judges may of course be more in depth.”
Hope this helps and good luck to you guys!
Hello everyone! Just a follow-up on Engineering Inspiration Judging at District Champs. I hope this will help teams prepare for next year!
This year was my team’s first year winning EI. At our District Championship (MAR) we were informed that we did in fact need a “not-so-formal” presentation. The specifications were as follows:
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Not all EI teams at districts have qualifying robots, so all judging for EI is done separately. This means any information outreach judges acquire in the pits will not be considered for EI.
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The judging session will only be about 10 mins, however the time constraint is not as strict as chairman’s and can be stretched. My best guess is that our judges gave us about 12 minutes to present.
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Some people seem to report a limit on how many students can be present for the judging session, however we were informed that we could bring as many students as we wanted.
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There is not a formal presentation aspect of this - it is more of an interview where the judges ask lots of questions, as they would in the pit.
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There will be no technical questions asked, so just focus on the outreach, business, marketing, and sustainability principles of your team.
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Unlike chairman’s, there is no feedback from judges at any point.
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Just some advice from a previous EI presenter… breathe. The presentation is not as scary as it sounds, and its a lot of fun if you make it. My team was laughing with the judges for a majority of the time, and there were plenty of smiles to go around. Just relax and enjoy the experience for what it is.
I hope this will come in handy for future teams competing for EI at district championships! I can’t guarantee it’s the same for everyone but I hope that this gave you a general idea of what to expect.
One last note… EI is a very prestigious award. It is an honor to win, but at the end of the day the judges can only pick so many winners. The way I look at it, the recognition for all of your incredible work is definitely nice, but not winning EI certainly doesn’t undermine all of the hard work and dedication you guys have shown as the amazing FIRST teams you are 
So just keep working at it and proving that FIRST really is more than just robots
- MW, FRC 1640
Just a side note, in Indiana all 3 teams up for EI were competing with their robots so the judges did come around and do pit interviews with each team after our room interviews.