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Judge Role & Description

A FIRST judge takes on four distinct roles during the competition:

  • First Ambassador -
    The judges are ambassadors for the FIRST mission throughout the competition. Their shirts so identify them. This role should be played to the hilt at all times during the event. It is an honor and a pleasure to be a judge ambassador.

  • Role Model -
    Many of the students have never seen a real "engineer – scientist," or have not been exposed to individuals who have excelled in other career fields. Demonstrate a sense of humor, a successful career, real life-experiences, etc. Remember the mission

  • Detective -
    It is up to the judges to discover the contestants deserving of the awards. They must find the facts and sort them out in minimum time and amid utmost confusion.

  • Reporter -
    Part of a judge's duties includes writing a short script that explains why each team was recognized for their award. This script is read at the award ceremony, and as such, your notes will be useful to construct a succinct and informative description of each team's performance.

It is important to note that FIRST JUDGES ARE NOT REFEREES of the Competition! Accordingly, although you may find it fun and useful in evaluating teams for consideration of certain awards, judges do not need to understand all the intricate rules applying to the robots participating in the Competition.

Ideally, a judge should be recognizable -- not only by his or her role in the competition -- but as someone of importance (Executive, Educator, Inventor, Owner of a company or someone of prominence in the community, etc.) Judges must be willing to make the full commitment of time as indicated below. The awards process needs to be seen as unbiased by participants at the competition, so judges should not have a close relationship with any of the teams at the competition. Judges do not need to have a detailed understanding of the competition rules, but should understand the goals of FIRST.

Judge Commitment:

  • Judges must attend a team dinner on Thursday nights 6-8 PM where they will receive a judge shirt, go through an orientation and be assigned specific judge responsibilities.

  • Judges work at the competition Friday and Saturday from about 7:30 AM - 4PM.

  • Judges need to be able to move around the pit and arena where they will need to take notes. They must also participate in award deliberations with other judges in a facilitated session.

  • In addition to the judge's dinner, judges will be provided with breakfast and lunch on Friday and Saturday.

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