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 submit the following:

• A Robot Flyer

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

Turn these in at the begining of your team's Judges' Interview on the morning of Saturday June 24.  See below for details on the documentation.

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. 

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

• Robot Flyer

• SIQ Documentation

Team Interview(s)

All teams will have a 10 minute interview with a judge panel on Saturday morning.  Teams may prepare a five minute presentation if desired. The teams who are nominated out of those 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.  Rubrics can be found below.

Maryland Tech Invitational 2023 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. 

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