The team that receives the Motivate Award has the culture of FIRST and clearly shows what it means to be a team. This award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition through team building, team spirit, and displayed enthusiasm. 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.

 

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 are functional and aesthetic, and can be shown in the simplicity of the design as it applies to the tasks, the look and feel of the robot, and how the design allows us to think of robots in new ways. The robot should be durable, efficiently designed, and effectively address the game challenge.

 

Here is what the judges had to say:

The judges felt the power in this robot's design. Their many parts were held together with a force that made them indivisible. Like tiny atoms aligning, all of the components of this robot lined up to create a powerful design that allowed them to accomplish the tasks of the game.

Winner: Team 4174 Atomic Theory

2nd Place: Team 8221 Cubix^3        3rd Place: Team 5029 Powerstackers

 

Here is what the judges had to say:

The judges thought this team doubled down on the effort to design an innovative robot mechanism. These creative girls designed in CAD and printed many 3D parts. Their stacking "SIS-tem" helped them reach new heights.

Winner: Team 12676 siSTEM.io

2nd Place: Team 4174 Atomic Theory        3rd Place: Team 11112 RoboLords

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 impressed the judges with their engineering connections. They learned advanced math and physics principles that they used to incorporate and improve their robot. In the age of self driving robots, this team ensures autonomy.

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:

This team's engineering notebook STEMs from a POWERful CUBE of knowledge. These students' reflections look at home in any professional tome. Their process was well documented, rife with CAD, calculations, and code, or C-cubed. 

Winner: Team 8221 Cubix^3

2nd Place: Team 5029 Powerstackers       3rd Place: Team 12676 siSTEM.io

The Inspire Award is presented 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. This team shares their experiences, enthusiasm and knowledge with other teams, 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. The Judges used 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 demonstrated strong attributes in all judging categories. During the interview, they articulated the design process of their many custom components, which they used to great effectiveness on the competition field. This team STACKS their way through their 60-mile wide community with great POWER.

Winner: Team 5029 Powerstackers

2nd Place: Team 9773 Robocracy      3rd Place: Team 11112 RoboLords