Chairman’s

Award
George Chen
FRC 294 & 812 - SCRRF, TSD
 Introductions
✦ Name
✦ Team #
✦ Years in FIRST
✦ Done Chairman’s before
✦ Special requests
 Outline
•
Definition
•
Approach
•
Examples
•
Q&A
 Definition
✦ The Chairman's Award was created
to keep the central focus of the
FIRST Robotics Competition as our
ultimate goal for transforming the
culture in ways that will inspire
greater levels of respect and honor
for science and technology, as well
as encourage more of today's
youth to become scientists &
engineers.
 What's the difference
between CA & EI?
✦ EI: The extent and
inventiveness of the team's
efforts to recruit students to
engineering, the extent and
effectiveness of the team's
community outreach efforts,
and the measurable success
of those efforts.
 Why Chairman’s
✦ Bragging rights
✦ Education
✦ Prestige/perks
✦ Good skills to learn
Six Questions

From the chairman’s

application
 Question 1

How strongly does the

submission document the
impact FIRST has on the
learning experience of
the students, school
curriculum, engineers, and/or
community?
 Question 2

Has the team

explained/demonstrated
why/how it should be a role
model for other FIRST teams to
emulate?
 Question 3
How well has the team
communicated its excitement
and impact within the entire
school,
community, and beyond
(state/nation) through
participation in FIRST?
 Question 4

Has the team documented an

innovative way to spread the
FIRST message?
 Question 5
How strong of a year-round
team partnership effort is
reflected?
 Question 6
As a whole, does the content
of the documentation
exemplify the true meaning of
FIRST?
 Parts of Submission
✦ Essay (+ 4 images)
✦ Yearbook page
✦ Executive summary
✦ Presentation
✦ (Optional) Handouts
✦ (Optional) Media
✦ (Optional) Judge’s book
 How are you judged?
✦ Presentation
✦ In Pits
✦ In stands
✦ Q&A
 How do you
approach the
award?
 Timeline
✦ Get started early
✦ Revise, revise, revise
✦ Leave time to practice
presentation
✦ Factor in printing time
 Map out what you do
✦ Outreach
✦ Public
✦ School
✦ Sponsors
✦ Students
✦ Robotics (team related)
 Theme
✦ Covers overall message
✦ Catchy
✦ Personalize for team
 Executive Summary
✦ It’s a summary! Use bullets
& lists
✦ Note character limit
✦ Cover things:
✦ Not in essay
✦ Very important (reiterate)
 Yearbook page
✦ Raw statistics
✦ Used to determine diversity
✦ Mission statement
 Submission
✦ ~4 pages; 10,000
characters
✦ 4 images - does not always
mean pictures (totalling
~1mb)
✦ “Highlights Reel” for team
 Submission
✦ Outline first!
✦ Be sure to answer 6
questions
✦ What makes you stand out?
 Judge’s book
✦ Optional
✦ Covers in depth your team
✦ Don’t make it too long
✦ Not submitted to FIRST -
given to judges at regional
✦ “Annual Report” for team
✦ Great promotional material
 Laying out a judge’s
book
✦ Table of Contents
✦ Theme page
✦ Yearbook Page
✦ Executive Summary
✦ Submission
✦ Submission - Extended
edition (Director’s Cut)
 Presentation
✦ 3 students
✦ 10 minutes total
✦ 5 minute presentation
✦ 5 minute interview
✦ Usually lasts longer
✦ Public speaking skills
Styles of presentation
✦ Charts/graphs
✦ Storytime
✦ Product Release
 Questions asked
✦ Personal experience
✦ Greatest weakness/strength
✦ School involvement
✦ Mentor's work vs student
work
 Things to avoid
✦ Excessive media
✦ Multimedia
✦ Reading - Judges have
already read your
submission
✦ Lying
✦ Having mentors talk
Success Stories

FRC 294 & 812

294 Beach Cities Robotics
Themes
✦ 2003 -
Organized
Chaos - EI
✦ 2004- It’s
Everywhere -
CA
✦ 2005 -
Odyssea - EI
 Programs
✦ Weekly open house
✦ TV Show/Media coverage
✦ Sponsor involvement
✦ FIRST Links
✦ SCRRF/FLL involvement
✦ FIRST presentations
✦ Girls in FIRST
 Presentation
✦ Mini crate
✦ Binders
✦ Posterboards
 Team 812- Midnight
Mechanics
✦ Themes
✦ 2005 - Latch-Key Kids - CA
✦ 2006 – Kids teaching kids – CA
✦ 2007 - ??? (Secret!)
 Programs
✦ FIRST STEPS
✦ FIRST BUDDY
✦ Volunteerism
✦ Tutoring
✦ FLL
✦ Vex
✦ Underserved minorities
Submission
Submission
Judge's book
 Presentation
✦ Poster boards
✦ Personal experiences
Q&A Session