ADC Judged Awards
- All-Around Champion
- Communications Mission Champion
- Coding Award
- Airmanship Award
- Judges Award
All-Around Champion
The All-Around Champion recognizes a team that excels in both the judged award and performance award categories. This team demonstrates outstanding competition performance, high quality written and verbal communications skills and exemplary team conduct, sportsmanship and professionalism. This team is committed to excellence in everything they do.
Key criteria of the All-Around Champion are:
- Submission of a competition notebook is required.
- Be at or near the top of rubric rankings.
- Be ranked in the top 50% of qualification rankings at the conclusion of qualifying alliance/teamwork matches.
- Be ranked in the top 50% of solo skills rankings at the conclusion of solo autonomous flight and solo piloting matches.
- Participation in both the solo piloting mission and the solo autonomous flight mission is required, with a score of greater than 0 in each mission.
- Be a candidate in consideration for other judged awards.
- Exhibit positive team conduct, good sportsmanship, and professionalism.
Additional notes:
- All-Around Champion criteria, including performance metrics, are intended as a threshold for eligibility. Qualitative judgment on the part of judges is needed to determine an All-Around Champion from among eligible candidates.
- Events with multiple grade levels may award one All-Around Champion Award per grade level when eligibility requirements are met. Blended events must have at least 10 registered teams from each participating grade level two weeks before the event. See the qualifying criteria for more information.
- In the instance of two All-Around Champions being awarded at an event, teams are to be compared only among teams of the same grade level.
Communications Mission Champion
The Communications Mission Champion recognizes a team that demonstrates an organized, systematic, and professional approach to written and verbal communication, as demonstrated through their team interview and competition notebook.
Key criteria of the Communications Mission Champion are:
- Be at or near the top of rubric rankings.
- Exhibit a high-quality team interview.
- Team interview demonstrates effective communication skills, teamwork, and professionalism.
- Team interview demonstrates students’ ability to explain their alliance/teamwork, autonomous flight, and piloting strategies.
- Team interview demonstrates students’ knowledge of drone safety and regulations.
- Submission of a competition notebook is required.
- Competition notebook demonstrates clear, complete, and organized records.
- Competition notebook includes documentation of programming that includes multiple iterations.
- Competition notebook includes documentation of drone safety and regulations.
- Competition notebook and team interview demonstrate student-centered ethos.
- Team demonstrates effective project and time management.
Judges Award
The Judges Award recognizes a team that the judges felt were deserving of special recognition.
Criteria to consider for the Judges Award are:
- Exhibits a high-quality team interview.
- Team displays special attributes, exemplary effort, and perseverance at the event.
- Team overcomes an obstacle or challenge and achieves a goal or special accomplishment.
- Team interview demonstrates effective communication skills, teamwork, professionalism, and student-centered ethos.
Coding Award
The Coding Award recognizes the team with the most effective and consistent use of coding techniques and programming design solutions used in the solo autonomous flight matches. This award is earned by a team that demonstrates a solid understanding of programming concepts and documented multiple iterations to find programming solutions.
Key criteria of the Coding Award are:
- Participation in the solo autonomous flight matches is required, with a score greater than 0.
- Competition notebook demonstrates a clear, complete, and organized record of the programming management process, including version history.
- Programs are cleanly written, well annotated, and documented in the competition notebook.
- Strategies are well documented from initial conception to execution.
- Students demonstrate an understanding of programming concepts and can explain how they worked together to develop their drone’s programming.
Airmanship Award
The Airmanship Award is awarded to a team that consistently exhibits good judgment, demonstrates well-developed skills to accomplish mission objectives, and is dedicated to understanding and maintaining drone safety rules and regulations.
Key criteria of the Airmanship Award are:
- Show that they understand all four missions, why each one matters, and how they connect.
- Stay aware of their surroundings and always follow safety rules.
- Work well together by showing leadership, teamwork, good communication, and professionalism.
- Use correct drone or aviation terms when appropriate.
- Know and follow drone safety rules. This may include:
- Completing the FAA Trust (US Teams Only)
- Finishing Robolink’s Getting Started Course
- Using pre and post flight checklists
- Completing maintenance checks
- Keeping a flight log
- Show honesty, kindness, and respect to other teams, coaches, and spectators.
- Keep the work student-led and student-driven.
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Section 6: Competition Notebook Content and Design