Engineering Notebook Overview 2016 West Michigan FTC Kickoff September 10, 2016

Agenda Engineering Notebook Overview Summary Team Engineering Business Best Practices Importance of Engineering Notebook Advancement Order Awards Overview Resources Appendices Judging Process How to be Competitive for Awards

Engineering Notebook - Overview May be hand-written or electronic If handwritten, entries must be in ink! Entries should be made by every team member Showing that your Team has multiple members sharing the responsibility showcases how your Team is proactively thinking about the sustainability of your Team. Use both sides of a page. Never leave any white space: “X” out or crosshatch all unused space, and initial and date. For electronic Engineering Notebooks, consider printing on both sides of the paper. In case of an error, draw a single line through the incorrect data. Do NOT erase or use correction fluid. All corrections should be initialed and dated. Must have team name/number on cover Must have all four sections 1.Summary – Use to highlight key items of interest to the judges 2.Team Bios/Outreach 3.Engineering 4.Business / Strategic / Sustainability Plan Engineering Notebooks should be organized enough that an outsider (e.g. a potential sponsor) can understand the Team and their journey.

Engineering Notebook - Summary Summary Narrative Page should be used as a way to impress the Judges without the Team being in the room. When crafting your summary narrative, make sure you highlight what makes your Team stand out. Remember to keep this short, as you would want Judges to have more time diving into the pages of your notebook that you have tabbed for them. Remember, Judges only have a limited amount of time with each notebook. When tagging the pages you would like them to review, keep in mind that more tabs means that they will have less time to spend on each page. Think, quality over quantity.

Engineering Notebook - Team For each student and mentor, include a brief biography with : Name Age (or school year) of students Role on the Team Interests Reasons for joining a FIRST Tech Challenge Team. List Team Activities, such as: Community Outreach/Impact STEM Education Promotion of FIRST Team building activities School assemblies involving your team

Engineering Notebook - Engineering 1.Start a fresh page in the Engineering Section at every meeting. Record the date, and start/stop times when starting a new page. Include highlights from the meeting (e.g. What was talked about? What did you do? What was planned and/or accomplished during your time together?) 2.Record all designs and changes to the Robot directly into the Engineering Section of the Engineering Notebook. The inclusion of all details and sketches are preferable. Notes and calculations should be done in the notebook. Remember to explain the underlying science, math, and strategies your Team is using as well as why you are doing what you are doing. Pictures or sketches of the Robot designs, electrical wiring diagrams, or even software development are recommended as part of a thorough documentation. Judges are looking for the engineering process in everything you do…let’s say on a given day you intend to test out the ability to climb the ramp. How well did it work and what did you learn? What changes do you need to incorporate? The same holds for other events such as recruitment. How many students did you intend to recruit? How many did you actually recruit? What were contributing factors and what can you do differently next time (e.g. let’s say you planned an event to recruit 10 students, but you got 5. Was it ill-timed with another big event? Bad weather? Need to advertise more next time? Etc.)?

Engineering Notebook - Business Identify the Purpose for a Business Plan for your Team. This is unique for every Team and may touch on one or more of the following needs: Direction the Team wants to take Team Goals Type of outreach the Team wants to focus on Team budget Fundraising needs Sponsors The business plan should serve as the focus for all of your team’s activities, including sponsor requests and the sustainability of your team!

Engineering Notebook - Best Practices Have the students “own” the engineering notebook by keeping it up-to-date. Judges don’t want to see a nice, clean volume that summarizes the accomplishments of the season….we want to see the thought process as it happened, with good and bad ideas explored, including paper napkin sketches…as captured by the students! Live by the mantra “if it’s not in the Engineering Notebook, then it didn’t happen!” For more details, refer to: Section 7.3 of the Game Manual Part #1 the Engineering Notebook Guidelines document

Importance of Engineering Notebook To truly understand the requirements of the engineering notebook, understand its role and importance!

Advancement Order 1.Qualifier Host (optional) 2.Inspire Award Winner 3.Winning Alliance Captain 4.Inspire Award #2 (no trophy) 5.Winning Alliance 1 st Selected 6.Inspire Award #3 (no trophy) 7.Winning Alliance 2 nd Selected 8.Think Award Winner 9.Finalist Alliance Captain 10.Connect Award Winner 11.Finalist Alliance 1 st Selected 12.Rockwell Collins Innovate Award Winner 13.Finalist Alliance 2 nd Selected 14.Etc. Let’s say a competition has 7 qualifying spots for the state championships, then teams above this line will earn one of those spots. Often times a top team on the field is also an award winner, so the first 7 unique teams are selected. Gold represents heavy focus on the Engineering Notebook The general advancement criteria is listed in Section of the Game Manual Part #1. Check with your specific competition to determine how many qualifying spots are available.

Awards Overview AwardOverviewEngineering Notebook Required? Match Play a factor? Inspire Award Award to the model FIRST team, must be well- balanced in community service, STEM education, and near the top nominee in most award categories Yes, with business plan Yes Think Award Best engineering notebook that documents journey team took, including failures and lessons learned YesNo Connect Award Celebrates the Team that most connects with their local science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) community Yes, with business plan No Rockwell Collins Innovate Award Celebrates a Team that not only thinks outside the box, but also has the ingenuity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life Yes PTC Design Award Presented to Teams that incorporate industrial design elements into their solution to make robot functional and aesthetically appealing Yes

Awards Overview (Cont.) AwardOverviewEngineering Notebook Required? Match Play a factor? Motivate Award Celebrates the Team that exemplifies the essence of the FTC competition through Team building, Team spirit and exhibited enthusiasm, and who makes a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community, and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST. Yes, with business plan No Control Award Celebrates the Team that uses sensors and software to enhance the Robot’s functionality on the field. Must demonstrate innovative thinking in the control system to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, enhancing mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results on the field Yes, plus must submit application for award Yes

Awards Overview (Cont.) AwardOverviewEngineering Notebook Required? Match Play a factor? Promote Award (Optional) Celebrates the Team that is most successful in creating a compelling video message for the public designed to change our culture and celebrate science, technology, engineering and math. Teams must submit a one-minute long video. No Compass Award (Optional) Recognizes an adult Coach or Mentor who has provided outstanding guidance and support for a Team throughout the year, and demonstrates to the Team what it means to be a Gracious Professional. Teams must submit a second video submission. No Refer to Section 7.5 of the Game Manual Part #1 for more details. Contact the Event Coordinator for Awards available at your Particular Competition.

Resources Game Manual – Part season/game-manual-part-1.pdf Engineering Notebook Guidelines season/engineering-notebook-guidelines.pdf

Appendices

Judging Process 1.Team Presentation / Interview A.Each Team has an interview with a judging panel, typically comprised of 3 judges B.Format is typically 20 minutes 1.5 minutes for team to present what it wants 2.10 minutes Q&A with judges 3.5 minutes for judges to write up notes C.Each judging panel will interview about 6-8 teams, so timeliness is a must to keep on schedule! D.Judges then deliberate to start focusing on top contenders for each award 2.Pit Interviews A.Judge pairs then conduct pit interviews to learn more about each team in order to calibrate the nominees for an award. B.Judges only have ~10 minutes per team (like speed dating) C.Some awards rely on match observations (typically must be in top half of field to remain contender for those awards) 3.Final Deliberations A.Judges then decide top teams for each award B.Teams appearing as top contender in multiple categories are typically the nominees for the Inspire Award C.A team may only win one judged award

How to be Competitive for Awards 1.Team Presentation / Interview A.Have prepared speech highlighting the team, community impact, STEM outreach, school assemblies, fund raising, how you get mentors, etc. Highlight program, but also unique aspects of your team. B.Have everyone speak! Judges are looking for balance across the team and not a team that relies on one or two key resources C.Show enthusiasm! Coming across as a fun team with a spark leaves a lasting impression! Always show respect for one another and mentors! D.Thank them for their time in making the event happen! E.This is your best opportunity to get judges advocating for you in the judges room, so have an Awards strategy in mind to ensure you highlight relevant aspects of your robot/team 2.Pit Interviews A.Ensure someone is available to speak to judges all the time! Don’t make the judges hunt you down! B.Prepare talking notes about the team and robot (again, use your Awards strategy as the guide for what to highlight). If a judge pair doesn’t ask about something on your awards strategy, go ahead and say “Let me tell you about as I’m really excited by what we accomplished!....” C.Show them you know FIRST is more than just about the robot 3.Display Gracious Professionalism in everything you do!

How to be Competitive for Awards (cont.) Ultimately, everything you tell the judges that you did - failures and successes encountered, community service performed, etc. - ensure it’s all captured in your engineering notebook as we do cross- compare but under very time-constrained conditions! If a topic was important enough to highlight in your interview, then it was important enough to document.

Good Luck!