Skills Ranking Part of Design Award Requirement?

[Justinachano]

Is skills ranking in a competition factored into who gets the design award?

I thought it was just based on notebook and presentation!
Cause yesterday my team lost design because our skills ranking was 1 point less than the team that won.
I talked to the judges too and apparently our notebook and presentation was by far better than every other team.
So i’m confused???

[lacsap]

Is skills ranking in a competition factored into who gets the design award?

I thought it was just based on notebook and presentation!
Cause yesterday my team lost design because our skills ranking was 1 point less than the team that won.
I talked to the judges too and apparently our notebook and presentation was by far better than every other team.
So i’m confused???

In VRC, Skills is not a factor in considering Design. It is a consideration for Excellence. You can consult the Judges guide to see how awards are to be processed.

I would recommend you contact your RECF Regional Support Manager for clarification of your situation.

[lacsap]

Here is the Judges Guide

Design Award
The Design Award is presented to a team that demonstrates an organized and professional approach to the design process, project and time management and team organization. Only teams that submit Engineering Notebooks are eligible for the Design Award.
Key criteria:
• Engineering Notebook is a clear, complete document of the team’s design process
• Team is able to explain their design and strategy throughout the season
• Team demonstrates personnel, time and resource management throughout the season
• Teamwork, interview quality, and team professionalism
VRC Design Award Rubric
Judges must use the Design Award Rubric to evaluate the teams’ performance on the award criteria. A record of all teams submitting notebooks shall be kept by the Judge Advisor. Notebooks shall be collected during team check in and brought to the Judges’ room for evaluation.
VRC Judge Guide 9 9/17/2018 ©REC Foundation 2018
Judges may wish to perform a quick review of notebooks to separate notebooks into two categories: developing and fully developed.
• Developing team notebooks are often turned in by new teams that have not yet developed a strong VRC program. Mentors of these teams are often developing the idea of using a notebook and are having their teams turn in the notebook as part of this process. These notebooks are not going to be contenders for the Design Award. Judges may choose to not use a rubric to evaluate these notebooks to save time. However, these notebooks should be retained in the event they contain information that may affect decisions in other award categories, such as the Think Award (if applicable).
• Fully developed teams are often veterans of several seasons or participate in programs with a strong emphasis on notebooks. These Engineering Notebooks are more likely to be contenders for the Design Award and should be evaluated using the first page of the Design Rubric.
Judging teams with fully developed notebooks may be broken down to a simple two-step process. The first step identifies top contenders for the award, and the second step determines the award winner. Using this process, it is not necessary for Judges to interview every team that submits an Engineering Notebook.
Once Judges have identified fully developed notebooks using a quick review, they should then use the first page of the Design Award Rubric to evaluate the quality of a team’s Engineering Notebook. The Design Rubric may be found at the end of this guide. Notebooks should be separated into two categories based on this evaluation: intermediate and outstanding. This process allows Judges to identify the final teams that will be considered for follow up pit interviews. The intent of this process is to allow Judges to identify top 5 or 20% of teams (which ever is larger) as contenders for the Design Award efficiently based on their notebook.
The second step of the Design Award judging process is to use the second page of the rubric to evaluate the top 5 (or 20%) teams’ understanding and application of an effective robot design process during a team pit interview with Judges. The outcome of these interviews should be used to rank the top 5 (or 20%) contenders for the Design and Excellence Awards. The Design Award Rubric is found below.
Rubrics are confidential judging documents and are not to be returned to the team, coach, or Event Partner. Rubrics are to be destroyed immediately after the Judge Advisor has recorded the winning team.
Engineering Notebooks
One of the primary missions of the VEX Robotics Competition is to help students acquire real world life skills that will benefit them in their academic and professional future. The Engineering Notebook is a way for teams to document how the VEX Robotics Competition experience has helped them to better understand the engineering design process while also practicing a variety of critical life skills including project management, time management, brainstorming, and teamwork. Bound notebooks are preferred by Judges and are given a 3-point bonus on the Design Rubric. Teams receive bound Engineering Notebook when they register. Instructions and examples are included in the front of the notebook.
Each notebook is created through a concerted effort by a team to document their design decisions. Large events may send a Design Award winner as well as the Excellence Award winner to a state or regional championship, so teams should start their notebooks early and update them often.
Engineering is an iterative process whereby students recognize and define a problem, brainstorm and work through various stages of the design process, test their designs, continue to improve their designs, and continue the process until a solution has been identified. During this process, students will come across obstacles, encounter instances of success and failure, and learn many lessons. It is this iterative process that students should document in their Engineering Notebook.
VRC Judge Guide 10 9/17/2018 ©REC Foundation 2018

The Engineering Notebook is an opportunity to document everything a team does throughout the design process. Students should include a number of items in their Engineering Notebook including:
• A table of contents
• Team meeting notes as they relate to the design process
• Design concepts, sketches and pictures
• Notes from competitions regarding observations that should be considered in the next iteration of
their design
• Programming improvements or significant modifications
• Team members’ observations and thoughts on their design
• Team organization practices as they relate to their design process
• Other documentation that a team finds useful as related to their robot’s design
The team should also document their project management practices including their use of personnel, financial, and time resources.
A bound quad-ruled notebook is the preferred format. The Engineering Notebook provided by the REC Foundation with team registrations includes hints and examples of good notebook practices. Teams may use the notebook provided or purchase their own bound notebook. The team number should be on the cover. The notebook should never be edited. Pages should never be removed from the notebook even if they contain errors. The notebook should be written in ink with errors crossed out using a single line. Pages should be numbered and entries should be dated in chronological order with each page signed or initialed by the students. Additional materials such as examples of computer code or CAD drawings should be glued or taped into the notebook.
The question of what is a ‘bound’ Engineering Notebook often arises. To be considered bound for the purposes of the VRC program, a notebook must have been bound prior to any entries being made in it. Teams concerned with the definition of a bound notebook are urged to simply use the VEX Engineering Notebook they were supplied with upon registering their team or an equivalent notebook.
Judges will not accept electronic notebooks on lap tops, thumb drives, or cloud-based servers. Teams will be interviewed in their pit area during local and state competitions.

[Gear_Geeks]

That does not sound right. They may need better for judge training in your area. Your RECF rep can help with that.

[Justinachano]

ughhhh
thanksss
yeah no bueno

cries broke my regional win streak man…

[Adam_T]

Is skills ranking in a competition factored into who gets the design award?

I thought it was just based on notebook and presentation!
Cause yesterday my team lost design because our skills ranking was 1 point less than the team that won.
I talked to the judges too and apparently our notebook and presentation was by far better than every other team.
So i’m confused???

It could be that the judge misspoke, when they said Design Award they could have actually meant Excellence Award. In case of Excellence Award your skills score would have been a factor.

[sankeydd]

It could be that the judge misspoke, when they said Design Award they could have actually meant Excellence Award. In case of Excellence Award your skills score would have been a factor.

This makes the most sense to me.