ADC Pro Judged Awards
- All-Around Champion
- Engineering Design Award
- Airmanship Award
- Coding Systems Award
- Industry Insights Award
- Judges Award*
* optional, not included in standard trophy pack
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.
Engineering Design Award
The Engineering Design Award recognizes the team that demonstrated excellence in applying the engineering design process to both their aerial and ground systems. Their documentation told a compelling story, one filled with brainstorming, CAD models, iterations, testing, and purposeful design decisions. They didn’t just build; they engineered with intention, using industry-aligned practices to create cohesive, efficient systems.
Key criteria of the Engineering Design Award are:
- Submission of a competition notebook is required.
- Be at or near the top of the rubric rankings.
- Demonstrate an intentional, iterative engineering design process through brainstorming, research, CAD, prototyping, testing, and refinement.
- Demonstrate independent student inquiry and problem-solving throughout the design process.
- Demonstrate thoughtful engineering of both aerial and ground systems, including purposeful design decisions and tradeoffs.
- Demonstrate effective management of time, personnel, materials, and other resources.
- Students can clearly explain their designs, engineering decisions, testing, iterations, and game strategy.
- Demonstrate strong communication, teamwork, and professionalism.
- Demonstrate a student-centered ethos through the notebook, team interview, and conduct at the event.
Industry Insights Award
The Industry Insights award is about connecting the competition to the real world, where drones and ground robots are solving critical challenges. The Industry Insights Award goes to a team that explored how drones and robots are transforming the power and energy industry. Through thoughtful research, outreach, and reflection, this team demonstrated how their work today connects to real-world careers and tomorrow’s technologies.
Key criteria of the Industry Insights Award are:
- Demonstrate meaningful research into how drones and ground robots are transforming the power and energy industry.
- Demonstrate independent student inquiry through research, industry outreach, and engagement with professionals.
- Connect competition experiences to real-world applications, challenges, technologies, and careers in the power and energy industry.
- Students clearly communicate what they learned and how their insights influenced their thinking, designs, or approach to the competition.
- Demonstrate thoughtful reflection on the future of the industry, including emerging technologies and career opportunities, through a student-centered approach.
Coding Systems Award
The Coding Systems Award recognizes a team that demonstrates exceptional coding skills implemented in both their drones and robots. Judges evaluated not only code quality, but also how that code powered smart, autonomous systems that worked together to complete missions. This team showed that great code is the brain behind every successful bot.
Key criteria of the Coding Systems Award are:
- Participation in the solo autonomous flight skills 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 and robots’ programming.
Airmanship Award
The Airmanship Award goes to the team that showed precision and professionalism in both flight operations and ground system handling. Judges looked for detailed flight logs, a strong safety plan, well-executed maintenance routines, and smart project management that ensured mission readiness. This award honors a team that demonstrated elite operational skill and discipline.
Key criteria of the airmanship award are:
- Submission of a competition notebook is required.
- 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)
- Using pre and post flight checklists
- Completing maintenance checks
- Show honesty, kindness, and respect to other teams, coaches, and spectators.
- Keep the work student-led and student-driven.
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.