December 7 – Indianapolis

The Design Award expands on this year’s challenge, inspiring teams to incorporate industrial design into their robots. These elements 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 team that receives the Motivate Award celebrates 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.

The Control Award celebrates the team that demonstrates innovative thinking in the control system to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, enhancing mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results on the field.

The Innovate Award sponsored by RTX celebrates a team that has the ingenuity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life. This award is given to the team that the Judges feel has the most innovative and creative robot design solution to this season’s game. Elements of this award include elegant design, robustness and ‘out of the box’ thinking. This award may address the design of the whole robot or some sub-assembly component. The creative component needs to work consistently.

The Connect Award is presented to the team that the Judges feel most connected with their local Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) community. A true FIRST team recognizes that engaging their local STEM community plays an essential part in their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself.

The Think Award is given to the team that the Judges feel best reflects the journey of the engineering design process. The engineering portfolio is the key reference for Judges to help them identify the most deserving team. This team’s engineering portfolio focused on the design and build stages of the team’s robot and exemplified their journey as a team and engineers.

Captain – 21624 Titans – from South Bend, IN

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.