Judged Awards at this year's FTC league and regional championships
San Diego Region FTC Teams,
Hope all is well with you all! This has been a challenging year for many of us and we look forward to engaging with you all to make this season a time of great learning. Through this unique experience we hope that we can all come out stronger and learn to appreciate the many aspects of life and learning that we previously have taken for granted.
Our league championship tournaments will be in March, followed by our regional championship in April. These tournaments will have judged awards and incorporate judging interviews. This year all judging will be done remotely to keep everybody safe and will take place on March 27 or 28, depending on which league you participate in, and on April 25 for the regional. The schedule for the competitions for both the League and Regional Championships will be shared separately. Award descriptions are here. Promote and Compass awards will only be given out at the Regional. To facilitate the remote session we are incorporating a new concept for this judging season:
Judging will start around 8am - detailed schedules to be shared closer to the tournaments.
Our Judges will be using a rubric developed for the SD Region from the judging guidance provided by FIRST. The goal of this rubric is to provide additional guidance to the teams and ensure a consistent judging process. While the intention is to bring additional rigor to the judged awards, teams should also remember that FTC judged awards are subjective in nature and, per FTC rules, "scored" rubrics and all judging notes cannot be returned to teams.
Thank you and good luck in the championships this year!
Ulf Sundberg - SDFTC Judging Advisor
- Control Award - For teams submitting a Control Award sheet. Please consider submitting a video that show the robot in autonomous mode plus any driver control enhancements. Note, this video expected to be a short demo, max 3 minutes, of these functions only and should not cover other topics. Share this link on your submission form.
- Design and Innovate Awards - If your team has aspirations on the Design and/or Innovate award please take Matt up on the offer described on the Tournament Information page Item 3 - sharing videos of tournament runs.
San Diego Region FTC Teams,
Hope all is well with you all! This has been a challenging year for many of us and we look forward to engaging with you all to make this season a time of great learning. Through this unique experience we hope that we can all come out stronger and learn to appreciate the many aspects of life and learning that we previously have taken for granted.
Our league championship tournaments will be in March, followed by our regional championship in April. These tournaments will have judged awards and incorporate judging interviews. This year all judging will be done remotely to keep everybody safe and will take place on March 27 or 28, depending on which league you participate in, and on April 25 for the regional. The schedule for the competitions for both the League and Regional Championships will be shared separately. Award descriptions are here. Promote and Compass awards will only be given out at the Regional. To facilitate the remote session we are incorporating a new concept for this judging season:
- NEW FOR THIS SEASON - PRE-RECORDED 5 MINUTE VIDEO:
- The 5 minute presentation that kicks off the judged session is this season done through a video recorded by each team beforehand.
- The judges will have viewed the pre-recorded video before the Zoom call for the Interview / Q&A
- The video will be the team's presentation that tells their story and highlights their accomplishments in each judged area. Teams can decide how they best achieve that through the 5 minute video.
- The video's should be submitted by April 21st for the Regional
- Detailed information about the video submissions can be viewed here: ( LINK )
- NOTE: Five minutes is the maximum time allowed for this video.
- SAME AS PREVIOUS SEASONS - INTERACTIVE 15 MINUTE INTERVIEW / Q&A:
- The Q&A is done through a Zoom call where panels with 2-3 judges and the teams engage in interactive sessions where judges ask questions and teams engage by giving their answers.
- The teams should have the robot available during the interview
- Total time for each team is 20 minutes (5 Minute Pre-recorded Intro/Video + 15 Minute Interview / Q&A = 20 minutes)
- FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS/INTERVIEWS will take place over Zoom calls after judges conclude initial round of deliberations. More details on scheduling of these will follow with the tournament schedules.
Judging will start around 8am - detailed schedules to be shared closer to the tournaments.
Our Judges will be using a rubric developed for the SD Region from the judging guidance provided by FIRST. The goal of this rubric is to provide additional guidance to the teams and ensure a consistent judging process. While the intention is to bring additional rigor to the judged awards, teams should also remember that FTC judged awards are subjective in nature and, per FTC rules, "scored" rubrics and all judging notes cannot be returned to teams.
Thank you and good luck in the championships this year!
Ulf Sundberg - SDFTC Judging Advisor