The Think Award: Documenting the Journey

The Think Award is the bedrock of FTC engineering. It’s not just about having a good robot; it’s about proving you knew what you were doing every step of the way. Judges want to see that your success wasn’t an accident—it was the result of a rigorous, iterative design process.

In the DECODE season, where strategic depth is higher than ever, your ability to document your “journey” is what will separate you from the pack.

What is the Think Award?

The Think Award is given to the team that best reflects the journey of the engineering design process. The key word here is “journey.”

Judges’ Insight: A portfolio that only shows the final shiny robot is a bad Think Award portfolio. Judges want to see the ugly prototypes, the failed ideas, the math that didn’t work, and—most importantly—how you fixed it.

The Core Ingredients

To truly contend for the Think Award, your portfolio needs to master three specific types of content:

1. Visualizing Complexity: State Machines & System Architecture

Text is boring. Judges are skimming through dozens of portfolios. You need to communicate complex software and hardware logic instantly using diagrams.

• State Machine Diagrams: Don’t just explain your intake logic; draw it. Show the states: Idle -> Intaking -> Transferring -> Indexing -> Ready to Shoot.
• System Architecture: How does your Vision subsystem talk to your Drive subsystem? A simple block diagram showing data flow (e.g., Limelight -> Odometry -> PID Controller) screams professionalism.

2. The Math Behind the Motion

“We made it fast” isn’t enough. “We geared it for 1600 RPM to achieve a 45-degree trajectory at 3 meters” is Think Award material.

• Show Your Work: Include torque calculations for your arm, trajectory physics for your shooter, or gear ratio calculations for your drivetrain.
• Data Validation: Did you calculate a theoretical speed? Great. Now show a graph comparing it to your actual tested speed. The gap between theory and reality is where the engineering happens.

3. The Iterative Loop

This is the heart of the Think Award. For every major mechanism, follow this narrative arc:

1. Problem: “The intake was jamming on Green Artifacts.”
2. Hypothesis: “We thought more compression would fix it.”
3. Prototype: (Insert picture of cardboard/wood prototype).
4. Test Result: “It jammed more.”
5. Pivot: “We realized geometry, not compression, was the issue. We redesigned the ramp angle.”
6. Final Solution: (Insert CAD render of final part).

Leveraging Technology for the Win

In the modern era of FTC, using advanced tools to validate your designs is a massive plus.

[!TIP] Pro Tip: Use FTC Coach to analyze your portfolio’s narrative. It can specifically scan your text to ensure you’re effectively articulating your design “journey” and not just listing specs.

Checklist for Your Portfolio

Before you print, check if you have:

• Sketches/CAD Renders: At least one “napkin sketch” vs. final CAD comparison.
• Math/Physics: At least one page dedicated to the math behind a mechanism.
• Code Snippets: Vital segments of code (like your PID loop or state machine) with comments explaining why it’s written that way.
• Failure: Explicit mentions of things that failed. Failure is the best proof of engineering.

Conclusion

The Think Award isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being persistent. It’s about showing the world that you are real engineers who solve real problems using data, math, and creativity.

Document the struggle. Win the award.