Would the RECF consider implementing a page limit to Engineering Notebooks?
Rationale
Please read this in it’s entirety as I know it may be a controversial idea. I have posted this question in the VTOW forum post of the same title [HERE] if you want to discuss further with me, but let’s not dilute the original threads with these conversations.
Ever since the RECF has allowed Digital Engineering Notebooks (DENs), there has been a constant and large increase in the average page count of notebooks, especially across high performing teams. Although, as a 10 year competitor, I am very happy to see more teams putting effort into their ENs, I feel it has gotten out of hand.
With longer notebooks, and judges’ limited time, the important information can quickly be buried making these volunteers’ jobs harder. Additionally, teams need to learn how to share their ideas and methods in a concise way that will be expected in higher education, and into industry.
In 2018, 3/6 of the world design award winners had notebooks under 300 pages (3 non-public notebooks). The 2022 Excellence award winning team (81P) had a 318 page notebook (also non-public, but the members were my former teammates) followed by winning 2023 design with 355 pages. The 2023 Excellence award winning team (21417A) had 437 pages (at states) [HERE]. 515R’s notebook from 2023 which has inspired so many teams, and won 4 Sig Excel Awards was about 400 pages [HERE]. BLRS2’s VexU notebook from 2024, winning World’s Design and documenting 2 robots, was about 400 (submitted to Worlds @ 315 in January) [HERE]. I list these to show that many of the most competitive teams can show what appears to be the best notebooks in each season in less than 500 pages.
Last season, there were dozens of notebooks with over 700 pages. I can’t publicly share much more information than that, but if you talk to any JA from a Signature Event, or Regional Championship, I can almost guarantee they will tell you the same thing. It isn’t extreme anymore for a JA at a high caliber event with ~90 teams (such as a Sig or Regional Championship) to expect their EN judges to read 10,000 pages if their top notebooks are each around 500 pages. I have already seen notebooks that will be going to signature events in the near future with >350 pages … in SEPTEMBER with ~7 months of (I hope) great engineering practice to be documented for these students.
I threw out the page limit of 500 (excluding a code appendix) to some people today. I trust the RECF to dig into the data, and find an appropriate limit if they see fit. I also would propose a possible subset of the Usability & Completeness criteria to consider conciseness, or a consideration under the Notebook Format Criteria.
I understand that limiting the number of pages could have a few negative side effects such as limiting a team’s creativity in documentation, or causing teams to just make their font/writing smaller. As a 10 year competitor, and now a judge of 3 years (including as JA), I want to raise my concern of the size of the ENs we see from teams around the world.
I am sure the amazing JA’s at Worlds, and the members of the Competition Judging Committee can share their thoughts on this for seasons moving forward, but I wanted to raise the question now.
Max, BLRS/2