FRC Presentation

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The FRC Judge Team What They Wish You Knew About
Judging
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• The FRC Judge Team
• Who are these people?
• What are they up to?
• Six tips for presenting your accomplishments

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Who Are These People?

• The judge team is comprised of volunteers who
  support the goals and mission of FIRST. They
  want to see every team be successful, learn, and
  grow from the experience.
• Judges are
• Engineers
• Scientist
• Educators
• Business and Community Leaders

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Who Are These People?
Judges are always serious, never have fun, and
have no sense of humor.
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What Are The Judges Up To?

• The judge team is evaluating how well an FRC team
  has embraced the FIRST program with regard to
• Team dynamics
• Project planning
• Technical achievement
• Quality
• Judging is accomplished according to a defined
  criteria for each award.
• Every FRC team should know and understand the
  awards and the judging criteria for each award

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How Are The Judges Involved With The Competition?

• An FRC team should understand that judges are not
  involved with evaluating the competition in any
  way. However, the judges do care about machine
  performance and team dynamics under the stress of
  competition.
• Judges are not involved with the competition or
  evaluation its outcome.
• Judges are interested in how the robot performs
  on the field.
• Judges are interested in team interactions in
  competition.
• One or more judges are assigned to observe the
  competition and report back on field performance
  and team dynamics.

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Tips For Working With Judges --

• Tip 1 Have a designated team spokesperson.
• Have a designated person who can speak in
  general about the team and its activities.
  Everyone on the team should know who the speaker
  is.
• This person should be a skilled communicator and
  be a generalist, not an expert.
• The spokesperson can bring in others
  (programmers, builders, fundraisers, etc) as
  needed.
• The judges have a defined set of tasks that
  have to be completed in a short time. Help the
  judges use their time efficiently by having a
  designate speaker.

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Tips For Working With Judges --

• Tip 2 Have a business plan and a theme.
• A team should be able to show the judges some
  type of business plan that defines the direction
  of the team as a business. It does not have to
  be perfect but have something.
• A team should have a theme that is easy to
  remember. The judges look at 30 teams and a
  strong theme gives the team an identity the
  judges can remember.
• The team should be able to articulate how
  non-technical students help advance the team
  (i.e. fundraising). The spokesperson should be
  able to talk about outreach activities.

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Tips For Working With Judges --

• Tip 3 Have a documented safety plan and
  practice what you have on paper.
• Every team should have a safety plan committed
  to paper.
• Every member of the team should know and
  practice the safety plan. A commitment to safety
  should be abundantly obvious to the judges.

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Tips For Working With Judges --

• Tip 4 Have a documented project plan.
• Like every real world engineering project, the
  team should have a well defined schedule that
  describes
• Required activities
• Major milestones
• Major decision Points
• Progress versus budget
• The judges will be particularly impressed by a
  project record that reflects planned performance
  versus actual (and how the team recovered from
  schedule variances).
• See handout for typical project plan

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Tips For Working With Judges --

• Tip 5 Have an Engineering Notebook and
  supporting drawings.
• Every team should maintain an engineering
  notebook that describes the journey. It should
  include
• Key project decisions
• Design ideas (including the ones that did not
  work)
• Project challenges and setbacks
• Troubleshooting and problem solving
• Teams should have engineering drawings and
  bills of material for as much of the design as
  possible. The quality of a teams configuration
  management effort will be noticed by the judges.

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Tips For Working With Judges --

• Tip 6 Regional Chairmans Award Interview.
• Know why you are there come prepared.
• Practice your presentation. The judges want to
  see a polished and practiced presentation. Dont
  show the judges your first rehearsal.
• Make sure your submitted documentation meets
  the rules and requirements.
• If you have a schedule conflict with field
  play, communicate with the judges they will
  reschedule your presentation. Dont just no
  show!!

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Questions and Discussion