FIRST Tech Challenge: Engineering Notebook

FIRST is not just about robots. It's not just about competition, building, or coding. It is all about the process. The learning. The upcoming of the new generation. New generations of Engineers learning more about the engineering process. That is why the FIRST Tech Challenge demands an engineering notebook for every team during competitions. Here is an introduction to the Engineering notebook.

FTC Engineering Notebook:

An engineering notebook is a working document. It is where ideas, sketches, and team thoughts are recorded in addition to the final production information about your team and robot. It is a journal your whole team will use to help everyone know what’s going on, where you record your testing data, and it is a record of your abandoned ideas and prototypes. 1) Engineering notebooks show the thought behind your strategy, designs, innovations, and organization. They show how each team member contributes and how your team overcomes obstacles. These things are hard to see at an event when you are there with a finished product. 2) Your engineering notebook is the primary reference for your team. It records all thoughts at meetings and events, all ideas for robot design, all changes to the code (although the actual code does not need to be included), and game strategy. A notebook is a tool for the entire team to communicate together. It should be used as a reference for the team as well as for the judges. 3) Engineering notebook is a tool you can use to show how your team works, what you do, and the concepts you are exploring with your sponsors and potential sponsors.

How do you Organize your Engineering Notebook?

A: Some teams have presented an engineering notebook organized by award. The notebook can be arranged in a way that makes it easy to show the additional supporting content if the judges have questions.

Reference: University of Idaho and FTC webstie