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.

Teams will be given a link to a Google drive folder to use to provide the MTI with the materials detailed below.  Links were emailed to the teams on July 2. 

Award Requirements

In order to be considered for a MTI Judged Award teams must submit the following by midnight EDT on Wednesday July 21, 2021:

• A five minute video presentation (This takes the place of initial interviews with judges conducted during a typical FTC tournament)  

• A Robot Flyer

• The SIQ documentation if competing for the Software Innovation and Quality Award

What is a Robot Flyer?

We ask teams to provide a one page flyer (it can be printed on the front and back) that illustrates why your design and robot should be considered for the MTI Judged Awards. These should be uploaded to your team's MTI Award Documentation folder by midnight EDT on Wednesday July 21.  Please name your flyer <Team Number> Robot Flyer.  

Here are a few examples for your reference:

• 2018 MTI Flyer from Green Machine Reloaded FTC 4318

• 2020 V-MTI Flyer from FTC Team 8393

 There will be NO review of Engineering Notebooks/Portfolios.

What Informs the Judges' Deliberations?

Team Submitted Materials

• Video presentation 

• Robot Flyer

• SIQ Documentation

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 loaded into your teams' Google drive folder after the MTI.  Rubrics can be found below.

Robot Performance Observation

The Maryland Tech Invitational judges include robot game performance in their award deliberations.  They will watch a minimum of three matches for each team prior to deciding on Award Nominees.  

Award Nominees' Interviews

Not all teams will progress to this round.  Judges will nominate a subset of teams for consideration for each of the three awards.  The Award Nominees will be notified that they have progressed to the final round of judging by approximately 2:30 pm on Saturday July 31.   They will have a remote interview over Zoom with a judging panel on Saturday July 31 between 4:00 pm and 5:30 pm.  The interviews will be 10 minutes in length and strictly question and answer, no presentations should be prepared, no video should be shown.   Teams are encouraged to have their robot on hand to use for reference. 

Maryland Tech Invitational 2021 Judged Awards

Software Innovation and Quality Award - The goal of this award is to recognize teams that demonstrate both innovative application of software in this year’s FIRST Tech Challenge game and strong software engineering techniques.  The winning team will receive a grant. Teams must submit documentation to be considered for this award.  For full details see the document below. Teams can find an editable version of this document in your MTI Award Documentation folder.  You need to upload your team's SIQ documentation to your team's MTI Award Documentation folder by midnight EDT on Wednesday July 21.  Please name the document <Team Number> SIQ Award.

The MTI extends a big thank you to FTC Alum and Volunteer Joshua Driesman and FTC Alum,  FTC/FRC Mentor Jeremy  School for developing the MTI SIQ Award criteria!

K.I.S.S. Award - This award will go to the team that has embraced and demonstrated the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Straightforward and Simple) philosophy when designing their robot. This award celebrates the accessibility and reliability of an elegant mechanical design. This award can be given to a team for their overall design or for a specific component on their robot. The winning team will receive a grant.  

Hardware Mastery Award - will go to the team that the judges deem to have the most innovative and robust hardware solution to this year’s challenge. The team that receives this award really impressed the judges with their engineering process, design and performance on the field. The top team will receive a grant.  

Below is the rubric for the Hardware Awards.

This information is subject to change