A significant part of the FTC experience revolves around its awards, which recognize teams for a wide range of achievements beyond just robot game scores. Awards increase the chance that a team is able to qualify for the next level of events (state, worlds)
FTC awards are given to teams at competitions that acknowledge their excellence in various aspects of the program. These awards are broadly categorized into:
Judged Awards: These are determined by a panel of volunteer judges who assess teams based on their engineering portfolio/notebook, interview presentation, pit interviews, and overall embodiment of the FIRST values. The majority of FTC awards fall into this category and are crucial for advancement in the competition.
Performance Awards: These are based on a team's robot performance on the competition field during matches and skills challenges (e.g., Tournament Champion, Finalist, Robot Skills Champion). While important, performance alone doesn't guarantee advancement or many of the prestigious awards.
Individual Recognition Awards: These acknowledge outstanding individual student contributions.
The awards aim to encourage teams to develop a well-rounded approach to the competition, fostering skills in design, programming, teamwork, outreach, and documentation. The ultimate goal is to inspire future STEM leaders and promote "Gracious Professionalism" – a core FIRST value that encourages high-quality work while treating others with respect.
Here's a detailed look at some of the most prominent FTC judged awards and the criteria for earning them:
What it is: The most prestigious award in FTC, given to the team that truly embodies the "challenge" of the program. The Inspire Award winner is a strong ambassador for FIRST, a role model, and demonstrates Gracious Professionalism both on and off the field. This team is a top contender for many other judged awards and is often the first advancement slot to the next level of competition.
How to earn it:
Excellence across the board: Teams must demonstrate high achievement in robot design and performance, strong documentation in their engineering portfolio, effective communication during judging interviews, and significant community outreach.
Ambassadorship: Actively share their experiences, enthusiasm, and knowledge with other teams, sponsors, the community, and the judges.
Gracious Professionalism: Exhibit respect and positive behavior towards all participants.
Well-organized portfolio: Submit a high-quality, thoughtful, thorough, concise, and well-organized engineering portfolio that includes engineering content, team information, and a team plan.
Strong interview: Clearly communicate their robot design, strategy, and team journey to the judges.
What it is: Recognizes the team that best reflects the journey they took through the engineering design process during the build season. It emphasizes the critical thinking and problem-solving involved in overcoming engineering obstacles.
How to earn it:
Detailed Engineering Portfolio: The engineering section of the portfolio is paramount. It should clearly document the team's design process, including iterations, challenges faced, solutions implemented, and lessons learned, demonstrating independent inquiry.
Understanding of STEM principles: Demonstrate a clear understanding of the underlying science, mathematics, and game strategies related to their robot design.
Reflection: Show how they applied the engineering design process and learned from their experiences.
What it is: Celebrates the team that most effectively connects with their local STEM community. This award acknowledges that engaging with the community is essential to a team's success.
How to earn it:
Community engagement: Document efforts to connect with local science, technology, engineering, and math communities (e.g., inviting engineers to mentor, hosting workshops, collaborating with schools). They should aggressively seek engineers and explore STEM opportunities.
Promoting FIRST: Help their community understand FIRST, the FTC program, and their team's mission.
Mentor engagement: Show how they acquired new mentors or gained knowledge and expertise from existing mentors.
Team plan: Include a team plan in their portfolio that outlines goals related to improving individual team member skills and outreach.
What it is: Recognizes the team with the most innovative and creative robot design solution, either for the entire robot or specific components, demonstrating "out of the box" thinking.
How to earn it:
Creative design: Showcase a robot design or sub-assembly that is elegant, robust, unique, and consistently effective in its function.
Documentation of design process: The engineering portfolio should detail the team's creative journey, explaining how they arrived at their innovative solutions.
What it is: Celebrates teams that incorporate strong industrial design elements into their robot solution, balancing functionality with aesthetics.
How to earn it:
Functional and aesthetic design: Present a robot design that is not only effective in performing game tasks but also well-built, sturdy, and visually appealing.
Industrial design principles: Document and implement industrial design principles, potentially including CAD images or robot drawings in their portfolio.
Thoughtful basis: Clearly explain the inspiration and rationale behind their design choices.
What it is: Recognizes the team that exemplifies the essence of the FTC competition through team building, team spirit, and enthusiasm. This team embraces the culture of FIRST and actively markets their team and FIRST to a broader audience outside of the STEM community.
How to earn it:
Team spirit and enthusiasm: Demonstrate strong team identity, cohesiveness, and a positive attitude, both within the team and during competitions (e.g., costumes, cheers).
Gracious Professionalism: Show respect and support for other teams.
Outreach: Exhibit enthusiasm in their community outreach efforts, effectively marketing FIRST and their team to a broader audience.
Team organization plan: Include a plan in their portfolio that outlines goals related to team identity, fundraising, sustainability, outreach, and community service.
What it is: Celebrates a team that demonstrates innovative thinking in their control system, utilizing sensors and software to enhance the robot's functionality and solve game challenges.
How to earn it:
Advanced programming and sensors: Implement sophisticated software techniques, algorithms, and sensor integration for autonomous operation, intelligent control, or improved mechanical systems.
Consistent functionality: The control components should work reliably on the field.
Detailed documentation: The engineering portfolio should thoroughly document their control components, including what sensors and hardware were used, the algorithms implemented, and lessons learned. A separate submission sheet may also be required for this award, summarizing the team's software.
These awards may be given at the discretion of the judges or event organizers.
What it is: This optional award is given to a team that creates a 60-second video recognizing a coach or mentor, highlighting what sets them apart. It celebrates the dedication and impact of mentors.
How to earn it:
Video submission: Produce a high-quality video (max 60 seconds) that celebrates a specific coach or mentor.
Impactful message: The video should effectively convey the mentor's influence and contributions to the team and the FIRST program. Strong production value is important, but message and impact are weighted more heavily.
What it is: This optional award is given to a team that the judges believe deserves recognition but might not otherwise qualify for an existing award. It's a way for judges to acknowledge unique or compelling aspects of a team's journey or efforts that don't fit neatly into other categories.
How to earn it:
Stand out: A team might earn this by demonstrating exceptional sportsmanship, overcoming significant challenges, or having a particularly inspiring story that resonates with the judges.
These awards recognize a team's success in the robot game.
Tournament Champion: Awarded to the winning alliance at the competition.
Finalist Alliance: Awarded to the runner-up alliance.
Robot Skills Champion: Recognizes the team with the highest score in the robot skills challenges.
Engineering Portfolio/Notebook: This is often the single most important tool for judged awards. It should be a comprehensive, high-quality record of the team's entire season, documenting the design process, team activities, outreach, financial planning, and lessons learned. It should be detailed enough for someone to rebuild the robot just by looking at the notebook.
Judge Interviews: Teams will have dedicated interview sessions with judges. It's crucial to prepare a concise and engaging presentation that highlights their accomplishments, demonstrates their understanding of their robot and processes, and allows every team member to contribute.
Pit Interviews: Judges often visit team pits throughout the event. Teams should always have members present who can confidently discuss their robot, team, and experiences.
Gracious Professionalism: Consistently demonstrate respect, teamwork, and a helpful attitude towards all participants, including alliance partners, opponents, and event volunteers.
Community Outreach: Actively engage with their local STEM and non-STEM communities to spread the message of FIRST and inspire others.
Teamwork and Communication: Showcase strong internal team dynamics, where all members contribute and communicate effectively.
In essence, FTC awards encourage teams to embrace the full spectrum of robotics development, from technical innovation and problem-solving to community building and character development, preparing students for real-world challenges and fostering a passion for STEM.