2024

Judging Details

The MTI Committee has created technical awards for this tournament: two hardware awards and one software award

None of the standard FTC awards will be given.

Award Requirements

In order to be considered for a MTI Judged Award a team must provide the following:

These must be submitted by 6:00PM EDT on Wednesday June 26th. 

Submit using this FORM

Please provide a paper copy of your portfolio and SIQ documentation at team check in on the morning of Saturday June 29th. 

Engineering Portfolio - new requirement this year, in place of Robot Flyer

The format of the engineering portfolio should follow rule 9.2.4 in Game Manual 1. You may submit this season’s engineering portfolio or modify it to focus on the engineering process and robot hardware. It is recommended that the first two pages are a robot summary highlighting the strengths of your design. The engineering portfolio should illustrate why your design and robot should be considered for the MTI Judged Awards. 

What Informs the Judges' Deliberations?

Team Submitted Materials

Team Interview(s) - new procedure for 2024

The first elimination round for judging will be based on teams’ submitted documentation. Upon review of the submitted documents, the judges will select a subset of teams for an interview with one of the judge panels on Saturday morning. The schedule will be posted at 8:45AM in at Pit Admin.  Interviews will begin at 9:00AM. The interviews will be limited to 15 minutes.  Teams may prepare a five minute presentation if desired. The teams who are nominated out of the panel interviews for one or more of the MTI awards will receive pit interviews during Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. 

Robot Performance Observation

The Maryland Tech Invitational judges include robot game performance in their award deliberations. Individual team data is collected by MTI Match Observers and then shared with the judges. 

Adherence to the FIRST principles of Gracious Professionalism®

The MTI embraces and follows FIRST's code of Gracious Professionalism at all times. Gracious Professionalism is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.  With Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions. Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. They avoid treating anyone like losers.  There is no chest thumping tough talk. Knowledge, competition, and empathy are comfortably blended.


Persons who do not comply with the principals of Gracious Professionalism may be removed from consideration for Judged Awards at the Maryland Tech Invitational.  Particularly egregious violations can result in yellow/red cards and/or removal from the event.  

Rubrics

Rubrics are used as an aid for determining the top teams for the judged awards.   They are tools to organize and ease communication amongst the award judges.  The winners are not selected strictly by their rubric scores.  These rubrics are filled out by the Judge Panels and will be sent to your team after the MTI.  

This information is subject to change