This is an email requesting judges for the FIRST ROBOTICS competition:

Please contact Charlie if you are interested.

IEEE members:

I am coordinating judging for the FIRST Robotics Competition we’ll be having in Dallas again this year. Now that the competition is coming closer, I am trying to nail down who has a desired to be involved. I thought the IEEE members in the Dallas area may be good candidates.

This competition will be held for North Texas at the convention center in Dallas area on March 29^th-31^st 2012. We expect to have two fields this year, so that means we need to find twice as many judges.

Here are a few more sites that may interest IEEE members:

•   For more information about FIRST: http://www.usfirst.org/
•   For information about our NTX activity: http://dallas.txfirst.org/
•   Impact of FIRST: http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/impact
•   Information on Judging: http://usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/Volunteers/Job_Descriptions/Judge%202008%281%29.pdf

A few facts that may help you understand the context of the competition and the requirements for judging:

•   The judges will need to be at the competition on Thursday night for the judge’s dinner and training (March 29th) as well as all day Friday and Saturday (30^th and 31^th).
•   The judging is on a wide range of areas, not just technical or on the team’s performance on the field. In fact, winning the contest on the game floor is the lowest level of award. The highest honors go to the team who represent FIRST’s mission most effectively. Awards are based on the machine, creativity and innovation and overall team performance.
•   The judges take on a number of roles throughout the competition:

-            FIRST Ambassador:  The judges are ambassadors for the FIRST mission throughout the competition.  Their shirts so identify them.  This role should be played to the hilt at all times during the event.  Giving positive feedback to the adults and students is very important. It is an honor and a pleasure to be a judge ambassador.

-            Role Model:  Many of the students have never seen a real “engineer – scientist,” or have not been exposed to individuals who have excelled in other career fields.  Demonstrate a sense of humor, a successful career, real life-experiences, etc.  Remember the mission – inspire the students. Although the judge does not have to be an engineer… there will be some who are engineers.

-            Detective:  It is up to the judges to discover the contestants deserving of the awards.  They must find the facts and sort them out in minimum time amid all the confusion.  Remember many “robots” can be similar and have almost “identical features”.  Find the differences, especially with the large number of rookies we’ll have.

-            Reporter:  Part of the judge duties includes writing a short script that explains why each team was recognized for their award.  This script is read at the award ceremony, and as such, the judge’s notes will be used to construct a succinct and informative description of each team’s performance. Be ready to write!

•   The judges will be responsible for their own expenses.
•   All the judges will go through a background investigation and will need to register their participation on the FIRST volunteer website: https://my.usfirst.org/vims/. This is a requirement of FIRST. Sign up for either the Dallas East or West event. We’ll figure it out later. They both take place on the same day.

They can contact me if they have interest. Thanks

Fellow in Office of Technology and Strategy for HP Enterprise Services

Mobile: +1-469-767-2311   Email: charlie.bess@hp.com   Blog: www.hp.com/go/tnbt

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 10:17 am and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed.