What's an engineering notebook?

• A documentation of your team’s design/building/robot iteration process
• This includes:
  • Photos and explanations of your robot
  • Game manual information + strategies
  • Brainstorming/designs + prototyping
  • Goals, awards, challenges accomplished, etc.
  • Code (Optional)
  • Revisions
  • Competition logs

Why have one?

• Organization
• It should be an accurate and complete overview of your team’s process
  • Detailed explanations of what you are doing and why so that anyone reading can understand
• Recording test results
• In case you need to look back on your team’s prior work
• You likely won’t be considered for any judged award without one
  • Build, Create, Amaze, etc.
  • Required for the Design Award and Excellence Award

Things you should do

• Include lots of visuals: Sketches, pictures, diagrams, etc… but don’t overdo it
• First impressions are important
• Use bullet points
• Paragraphs are fine in moderation
• Update your table of contents
• Start with an overview of the game and its objectives + constraints
• Use the Game Manual (And Appendix A for dimensions)
• Focus on WHY you did/didn’t do/replaced/modified/chose something
• How a change improves upon what you had before

Do Not

• Start/Do your notebook the day of a competition
• Start your notebook without describing your goals/ideas first- you can’t do this later
• Only include what you did without explaining it
• (If you decide to do a daily log format) Include entries where nothing happened
• Not not forget to date and sign each page
• Write in sloppy handwriting
• Exclude brainstorming ideas that weren’t your final choice
• Spell out numbers
• Leave large blank spaces
• Write large blocks of text with needlessly elaborate language; your notebook is not an essay
• Insert pictures or diagrams incorrectly
• Be inconsistent