This is one of the most critical scores in the competition.  It measures your team’s theoretical and technical knowledge about your ROV.

Unlike previous competitions where teams were visited by roving groups of judges, this year teams will give a formal, 15-minute presentation in front of a judges panel.  After your presentation, the panel will ask your team members questions about their ROV, including its design, operation, and safety features. 

Who presents?
All student members of your team must participate in this presentation.  You can choose to delegate one team member to give the complete 15-minute talk or divide topics up amongst one, two, or all of your teammates.  Audio visual aids, such as slide projectors, computer projection screens, white boards, etc. may or may not be available.  We will update you on this once the venue for the competition is confirmed.  You will be required to have your ROV in the room.  A table will be on hand for you to set up your vehicle.  During the question period, all team members must be present and prepared to answer any question a judge asks them to answer.

Sample questions:
In order to evaluate and score your team’s engineering presentation, the judges’ panel will focus on certain features of your ROV’s design and the process that went into building it.  Here are some examples of questions that the judges may ask.

(NOTE:  These are only examples and may not be the actual questions asked.) 

Structure

• How did you decide on the shape of the vehicle and the materials used to build it?

• What is the depth rating of your ROV?  How did you test this?

• Did you use any pressure cans in your design?  Explain how you designed and built these.

• What are o-rings and how do they work?

• How much did it cost to build your vehicle?

• How much does your ROV weigh?

Control system

• What type of control scheme have you used?  Why?

• How does your control system work?

• How many conductors are in the tether?

• What devices/functions does your system control?

• Is there some unique feature of your control system that you would like to tell us about?

• How did you waterproof your underwater electrical connections?

Propulsion

• How many thrusters does your vehicle have?  Why?

• How much thrust does each produce?

• How many watts does one thruster use at full rpm?

• How many amps does one thruster draw under full load?

• Explain how you measured thrust.

• How is power (watts) used by one thruster related to the thrust it produces?

• Do you know the forward speed of your ROV?  How did you measure this?

Ballast System

• How does your ROV ballast system work?

• Explain what stability is.  What is BG?

• Why is it important to consider stability in the design of ROVs?

Sensors

• What type of camera did you choose?  How did you waterproof it?

• What is a CCD camera?  Briefly explain how one works.

• What do your sensors measure or detect?

• What unique features are incorporated into your sensors?

• What additional sensors (other than a camera) have you put on your ROV?  Why?

Payload Tools

• What kind of payload tool(s) did you design to accomplish the mission tasks?  Why?

• Explain how this tool(s) works.

Resources

• Did the project meet the budget?

• What equipment/building supplies were donated, built, or bought?

• Did you economize yet produce a functional and robust vehicle?

 System Design

• Can the vehicle accomplish the mission tasks?

• What are the strengths of the design?

• What are the weaknesses?

• Do the safety systems work?

Originality

• Does the design of the vehicle and its sub-systems exhibit unique and/or original concepts?

• Are there any innovations or modifications that resulted in higher functionality and reduced $?

Workmanship

• What is the overall quality of the workmanship?

• Are the electrical systems neatly run and wired?

• Is it easy to access components for maintenance?

• Are warning labels and guards posted on potentially hazardous components?

• Is the tether neatly bundled and protected?

• Does the vehicle look aesthetically pleasing yet have practical functionality?

Team should be prepared to answer questions other than those examples listed above.  The judges may ask for more details.

Preparing for your engineering presentation and evaluation:
Standing in front of a group of judges and convincing them that your team has a worthy vehicle can be very stressful.  It is difficult to predict exactly what questions the judges will ask.  The scout motto “be prepared” is your team’s best strategy for reducing the stress and meeting this challenge successfully.  

Here are some suggestions for how to “be prepared:”

·     Make sure that every member of your team has a good, general working knowledge of your vehicle, even though they may have specialized in one specific aspect of its design and construction.

·     Every member should have a project notebook.  Project notebooks or journals are a requirement in all scientific and technical work.  They are the daily, detailed notes that you keep when developing and building your project.  They are also useful as the primary reference and source of information when creating your team’s technical project report (see Technical Report).  Write relevant technical and procedural issues down throughout your design and building process.

·     Research the specifications of the components that you use in your vehicle. For example, look up the specs of your ROV’s CCD camera and be familiar with such numbers as the amount of propulsive force the thrusters produce, the weight of your ROV, etc. 

·     Freely share information amongst your team members.

·     Produce clear, simplified diagrams that you might be able to use in your presentation.

·     Make sure that your vehicle is in complete and in working condition when you present.

·     Write a concise technical report and make sure all the members of your team have contributed to it.  Ask every member of the team to read it over to catch any errors, omissions, or typos.  This will help to familiarize all team members with all aspects of the project.

·     Practice your presentation.  Each team member should practice what he/she is going to say.  You’ll be surprised how fast 15 minutes will pass. Generally, you will have more to say about your ROV than can be presented in fifteen minutes.  That is why it is critical to organize your material and practice communicating it.  Ask your instructors or mentors to give you feedback.  Practice your presentation more than once so that you become comfortable speaking in front of other people in a coherent and organized way.

·     When your team is prepared and knows the material well, you will all be more comfortable and confident.  This will come across favorably to the judges.