Judges Needed At the State Robotics Championship

We are looking for individuals to volunteer as a judge at our STATE Championship tournament. We also have many other volunteer roles, but our biggest need is for judging.

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) events are amazing, inspiring experiences, where high school students share ideas, solve problems, compete like crazy, and get pumped up over technology. At FTC events, students experience teamwork, sharing, helping others, and respect.

https://chicagoroboticsinvitational.com/volunteer/

How does Judging work: Each Robotics team conducts a 5 minute prepared presentation followed by a 10 minutes where the judges ask the students follow-up questions. Judges working teams of two or three and rate the presentations in six different categories. they then come back and share the results with the rest of the judges.

Judges then review each team's Engineering Notebooks and follow-up with teams during the day to dive more deeply into specific topics. All Judges then collaborate and select which teams will win awards. Teams can advance from the League tournament to the State Tournament by either winning certain awards or based on the highest robot performance.

https://chicagoroboticsinvitational.com/volunteer/

Comments from people who have judged at past events:

“As a first-time judge, participant, and observer of a FIRST competition, I can attest, without hesitation, to having experienced each of the latter. You owe it to the young minds that depend upon you, in addition to yourself, to embrace this opportunity to make a difference and to play it forward - the progress of the World will not wait, nor should you.”

“I was blown away by the motivation, effort and ingenuity that these kids demonstrated through their presentations, engineering notebooks and robots. It's a great opportunity to serve as a volunteer judge and encourage these kids in their pursuit of STEM related activities.”

https://chicagoroboticsinvitational.com/volunteer/

Judges do not require any technical knowledge or experience with the robotics program. Judges need to be successful professionals who can recognize student achievements and encourage team members to continue learning.