Judging Process
Schedule
Friday
For Rookie Day Camp Judges
Please be at the Atwood Innovation Plaza (AIP) by 3:30 PM for assignments and judging process
For Saturday only judges:
No judge-specific actions are required on Friday. Feel free to walk around and observe or mentor. If you do mentor, be sure to avoid mentoring teams in the division/genre to which you are assigned.
Saturday
- 7:30 am to 7:45 am – check in at the AIP entrance
- 7:45 am – mandatory meeting to review assignments and judging process8:00 am – judging begins
- 8:00 am to 9:15 am – judging and deliberation
- 9:15 am – confirm winners with Josh Aikens or Jamie Lords
- 9:30 am – representative judge for each division and category announces winners
- 10:00 am – all done. go home. and THANK YOU!!
Process
Requirements
All projects must :
- Run in the environment for which they are built
- Provide judges with access to a computer or mobile device to review the project
- Allow judges to review the project’s source code
Presentation and Time
Judges have a maximum of five (5) minutes per team. We will ensure that each team of judges have adequate time
with each team.
- Each team gets at most three (3) minutes to present.
- Judges get a maximum of two (2) minutes to ask questions
- Judges will need to use their phone to time or grab an assistant to help.
Divisions
Process
In teams of two, judges will evaluate Divisions using the process below. Judge teams will have a short time to deliberate between themselves (see Deliberation below)
- Each team of judges will determine the top three (3) teams by score AND the top teams for each Category (below)
- Each team of judges will provide the table number and team name for their top three (3) teams for the division and the top team for each category from their assigned list
- Because each division will have multiple judging teams, the top three teams from Judging Team A will be given to Judging Team B and vice versa. Each judging team will then judge the other team’s Top
- After judging the other team’s Top 3, ALL division judges will deliberate to determine the Top three (3) teams overall for that division
- While Division Judging Teams are completing the second round of division judging, a set of Category judges will begin judging the top category teams as determined the Division judges to determine the best overall team for that Category (see below).
Deliberation
Deliberation will occur in the lobby. Judges will have at most a total of 15 minutes to deliberate, so please use the time wisely. Remember many of our participants have been up for 24 hours and we need to move through the judging process as quickly as possible.
There will be two phases of Deliberation for Division judges. The first one is to determine the top three division teams and top teams for each category after the first round. The second deliberation for division judges is to determine out of the top three teams overall using the evaluations from ALL judges assigned to that division.
Category judges will only have one phase of Deliberation that takes place after evaluating the assigned category teams to determine the top category team.
Criteria
Technical Difficulty
This score represents the degree of difficulty involved in creating the project. Teams are awarded points for “going out on a limb” in such a short period of time. For example, the team completed a project with an ambitious scope, tackled a new technology (language, library, or API), used an existing technology in a new way. It is the team’s responsibility to tell the judges their particular challenges or hurdles and how they overcame them.
Seed Questions
Is the project technically impressive? Complex? Does it seem remarkable that a team could achieve this in just 24 hours (i.e. completed an ambitious scope)? What libraries, APIs, frameworks did they use? Did they use that technology in a new way? If so, how? What new technology did they leverage?
Aesthetics (UI, UX, Design)
This score rewards projects with an attractive design and user experience. Part of developing good software is creating a something that people will use. Projects should have good aesthetics or a decent user experience. Teams that took the time and effort to consider this receive a higher score.
Seed Questions
Is the UI attractive or pleasing enough for users to start using the project? How is the design and user experience of your project? Is it easy to understand and use?
Uniqueness (Innovation. Wow factor)
This score is about innovation. Projects that are novel, innovative, or unique excel in this category. Teams should consider how their project is different from existing solutions Creativity and uniqueness are rewarded here.
Seed Questions
Which projects seem to really amaze and excite the audience? Is your project creative, new and innovative? Is it something we already know or is the idea disruptive? Is it a reflection of a team’s ingenuity? Does it pull something off that hasn’t been pulled off before? Does it do something new and unique?
Viability (not applicable for Rookie Kits)
Simply put, some ideas could survive in the real market, while others are destined for the bit-bucket. This score represents the commercial viability of the project. Teams receive more points on if their project would survive “in the wild.” Is the project practical? Does it fill a market need?
Seed Questions
Does the hack seem practical and viable? Has the project a realistic chance of being implemented? Is the idea scalable and applicable? Is it realistic to further develop the project? Does it have a market? Is it something a human being would feel delighted, excited, empowered, or even relieved to use?
Categories
Game
This Game category is for all other types of games that are created as a web or mobile application. In this category, you cannot use a game engine of any sort. Projects in this category will, in most cases, be created from scratch using available libraries. Any library used must be freely available to the public.
App
This category encompasses any application developed for desktop and mobile environments such as project management, chat, Alexa skills, etc. These applications are NOT games (see Game categories). Anything that is a game must be in one of the Game categories.
Maker
Projects in this category are a physical creation. This category is for projects that create or alter a piece of hardware such as a Raspberry Pi garage door opener, an Arduino lie detector, a drawing robot, a programmable UAV, or a space shuttle.
Lego League
This category is for teams looking to work on their First Lego League robotics project. To maintain an equal comparison, teams in this division are not included in another division. These teams will be judged for this Category only.
Rookie (custom)
This category is for Rookie division participants only. This category is for any project other that does not involve either of the two Starter Kits. This category is for Rookies that want to create a custom project of their choosing.
Rookie Starter Kit
This category is for Rookie division participants only. This is the first of two starter kits provided by Southern Utah Code Camp.
Rookie Junior Starter Kit
This category is for Rookie division participants only. This is the second of two starter kits provided by Southern Utah Code Camp.
Awards
Prior to the start of the award ceremony, one judge from each of the four divisions and one judge from each of the four categories will sit on the podium.
We have 16 sets of teams that will receives awards, so we need to get through this process in a relaxed, but swift manner.
At the appropriate time in the ceremony, each judge will announce the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes for their division, in reverse order. After awarding the division teams, the category judges will announce their winning teams.
Please lead the audience in applause for each of the winning teams. Invite the participants from the winning teams to come to the side of the podium to receive their awards and get their picture taken.