Inspire Award: Inspire Award This judged award is given to the team that best embodies the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. The team that receives this award is a strong ambassador for FIRST programs and a role model FIRST team. This team is a top contender for many other judged awards and is a gracious competitor. The Inspire Award winner is an inspiration to other teams, acting with Gracious Professionalism® both on and off the playing field. This team shares their experiences, enthusiasm and knowledge with other team, sponsors, their community, and the judges. Working as a unit, this team will have shown success in performing the task of designing and building a robot.

​

Think Award: Removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking.

This judged award is given to the team that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the
engineering design process during the build season. The engineering content within the portfolio is the key
reference for judges to help identify the most deserving team. The team's engineering content must focus on
the design and build stage of the team’s robot.

The team must be able to share or provide additional detailed information that is helpful for the judges. This
would include descriptions of the underlying science and mathematics of the robot design and game strategies, the designs, redesigns, successes, and opportunities for improvement.

​

Control Award: Mastering robot intelligence.

 

The Control Award celebrates a team that uses sensors and software to increase the robot’s functionality in the field. This award is given to the team that demonstrates innovative thinking to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, improving mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results. The control component should work consistently in the field. The team’s engineering portfolio must contain a summary of the software, sensors, and mechanical control, but would not include copies of the code itself.

​

Innovate Award: Bringing great ideas from concept to reality.

 

The Innovate Award celebrates a team that thinks outside the box and has the ingenuity, creativity, and inventiveness to make their designs come to life. This judged award is given to the team that has the most innovative and creative robot design solution to any specific components in the FIRST Tech Challenge game. Elements of this award include elegant design, robustness, and ‘out of the box’ thinking related to design. This award may address the design of the whole robot or of a sub-assembly attached to the robot. The creative component must work consistently, but a robot does not have to work all the time during matches to be considered for this award. The team’s engineering portfolio must include a summary of the design of the component or components and the team’s robot to be eligible for this award. Entries must describe how the team arrived at their solution.

​

Connect Award: Connecting the dots between community, FIRST, and the diversity of the engineering world.

 

This judged award is given to the team that most connects with their local science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community. A true FIRST team is more than a sum of its parts and recognizes that engaging their local STEM community plays an essential part in their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself. The team that wins the Connect Award actively seeks and recruits engineers and explores the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science, and technology. This team has a clear team plan and has identified steps to achieve their goals.

​

Motivate Award: Sparking others to embrace the culture of FIRST!

 

This team embraces the culture of FIRST and clearly shows what it means to be a team. This judged award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition through Gracious Professionalism and general enthusiasm for the overall philosophy of FIRST and what it means to be a FIRST Tech Challenge team. This is a team who makes a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community, and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST.

​

Design Award: Industrial design at its best.

 

This judged award recognizes design elements of the robot that are both functional and aesthetic. The Design Award is presented to teams that incorporate industrial design elements into their solution. These design elements could simplify the robot’s appearance by giving it a clean look, be decorative in nature, or otherwise express the creativity of the team. The robot should be durable, efficiently designed, and effectively address the game challenge.

​

Promote Award: This judged award is optional and may not be given at all tournaments.

 

The Promote Award is given to the team that is most successful in creating a compelling video message for the public designed to change our culture and celebrate science, technology, engineering, and math. Teams must submit a one-minute-long public service announcement (PSA) video based on the PSA subject for the season. Team may win the Promote Award only once at a Championship level event and only once at a qualifying tournament or league tournament level event.

​

Compass Award: A beacon and leader in the journey of the FIRST Tech Challenge.

 

This judged award is optional and may not be given at all tournaments. The Compass Award recognizes an adult coach or mentor who has given outstanding guidance and support to a team throughout the year and demonstrates to the team what it means to be a Gracious Professional. The winner of the Compass Award will be chosen from candidates nominated by FIRST Tech Challenge student team members, via a 40-60 second video submission. The video must highlight how their mentor has helped them become an inspirational team. We want to hear what sets the mentor apart.

​

Judges' Choice Award: This award is optional and may not be given at all tournaments.

 

During the competition, the judging panel may meet a team whose unique efforts, performance, or dynamics merit recognition, but does not fit into any of the existing award categories. To recognize these unique teams, FIRST offers a customizable Judges Choice Award. The judging panel may select a team to be honored, as well as the name of the Judges Choice Award. The Judges Choice Award recognizes a team for their outstanding efforts but does not factor into the advancement criteria.

​

Overall Rank: The overall rank of the team is based on how many points are scored by the team. It's quite straightforward in a virtual setting, the more cumulative points you score the higher your ranking. In traditional competitions this would also include alliance selection and several elimination rounds.