The Motivate Award celebrates the team that exemplifies the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition and embraces the culture of FIRST while making a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school, and community and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST.

 

Here is what the judges had to say:

The Design Award expands on this year's challenge, inspiring teams to incorporate industrial design into their robots. These elements can be shown in the simplicity of the design as it applies to the tasks, the look and feel of the robot in how the design allows us to think of robots in new ways. The design aspect must serve a function - but they should also differentiate the robot in a unique fashion.

 

Here is what the judges had to say:

This robot had a clean design that allowed it to interact across the field. Its articulating arm gave it great functionality. The robot started each match with a loud roar.

Winner: Team 14738 Cougars 

2nd Place: Team 9570 Gear Girls        3rd Place: Team 8730 RoboGriffins 

The Collins Aerospace Innovate Award celebrates a team that has the ingenuity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life. This award is given to the team that the Judges feel has the most innovative and creative robot design solution to the FIRST Tech Challenge game. Elements of this award include elegant design, robustness and 'out of the box' thinking with regard to design. This award may address the design of the whole robot or some sub-assembly component of the robot. The creative component needs to work consistently, but a robot does not have to work all of the time during matches to be considered for this award. The team's engineering notebook showed the design of the component(s) and the team's robot, and clearly explains how the team arrived at their solution.

 

Here is what the judges had to say:

This team wowed the judges with a last-minute innovative change. From the lander, their innovation springs them into action. This team is truly electrifying.

Winner: Team 9734 Volt 

2nd Place: Team 8480 Technabots       3rd Place: Team 9570 Gear Girls

The Connect Award is presented to the team that the Judges' feel most connected with their local community, FIRST and the business world. The best team is more than the sum of its parts, and recognizes that their schools and communities play an essential part to their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself. In addition, the team that wins this award is aggressively seeking engineers and other STEM professionals and exploring the opportunities available in the world of science and technology.

Here is what the judges had to say:This team received engineering help by connecting with real world engineers. They further powered their connection with places of higher learning. Their Presidential way linked them up to their local STEM community.

The Think Award is given to the team that the Judges feel best reflects the journey of the engineering design process. The engineering notebook is the key reference for Judges to help them identify the most deserving team. This team's engineering notebook focused on the design and build stages of the team's robot and exemplified their journey as a team and engineers.

Here is what the judges had to say:

The judges were impressed by this team's documentation in their notebook. Their numerous drawings pushed this book to the top. This team roared and rose to the occasion.

Winner: Team 8730 RoboGriffins 

2nd Place: Team 8480 Technabots        3rd Place: Team 9570 Gear Girls 

The Inspire Award is given to the Team that the Judges felt truly embodied the 'challenge' of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. The Team that receives this award is a strong ambassador for FIRST programs and works to promote FIRST and make it loud in their community. The Team that receives this Award has performed well in all Judging categories and was chosen by the Judges as a model FIRST Tech Challenge team both on and off the playing field. The Judges used Match performance, observations made during interviews and in the pit area, the team's engineering notebook, and performance on the playing field in determining the winner.

Here is what the judges had to say:

This team embodies the spirit of FIRST. While they are BOT-like in their discipline and work ethic, their team spirit still shines through. To paraphrase their school motto, "she conquers who conquers herself," and today they demonstrated that.

Winner: Team 8480 Technabots 

2nd Place: Team 9570 Gear Girls     3rd Place: Team 14738 Cougars