Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
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2433: Judging Format for engineering notebooks


Elizabeth Zinser
12-Jan-2025

I would like clarification on this excerpt from Section 8 of the Judging Guide:
"All teams being judged for an event must be judged in the same format to ensure consistency in the judging experience, and to remove the potential of format-based bias from impacting deliberations."

Based on this, when I am a judge advisor for an event, I require that the event either accept digital or physical notebooks, but not both. I notice on Robotevents.com that events are allowing mixed submissions as follows:

"Mixed Engineering Notebook Submissions ... Teams may choose to bring a physical copy of their notebook to submit to the judges or submit it digitally."

Could you please clarify the requirement?

If judges were allowed 30 minutes to review a notebook and this was consistent across all notebooks, could they be submitted either digitally or electronically?

Much thanks,

Betsy Zinser, Judge Advisor

Answered by Competition Judging Committee
13-Jan-2025

This would not be permissible.

On Page 28 of the Guide to Judging, under the heading "Notebook Submission Format", there exists the following verbiage (emphasis added):

The choice of judging format for the event rests with the Event Partner. Detailed information about judging should be found on the event page on RobotEvents. All teams at the event must submit their notebooks in the same format, regardless of their notebook’s native format. A team with a physical engineering notebook may need to upload a link to a digital copy via RobotEvents, or conversely, a team with a digital engineering notebook may be asked to print it out prior to the event.

Irrespective of whether the notebook is submitted digitally or in person (physical notebook), teams are responsible for their notebook’s formatting and presentation, and must ensure all materials are properly organized—including numbering and/or dating pages.