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It’s estimated that by 2025 nearly 3.5 million STEM jobs will go unfilled. The engineering design process is a practical approach to problem-solving that is utilized by VEX Robotics teams and in a wide range of potential careers. Entries for this challenge will explore the way professionals in a specific career or company use and document the steps of the engineering design process.

VEX Robotics competitors are uniquely positioned to become future innovators and pursue STEM-related careers. Many of the skills developed, including application of the engineering design process, will directly transfer to future professions. We want you to explore a possible future career, and discover the similarities and differences in how that prospective career and VEX Robotics teams use and learn from the process of engineering design. There are many paths that you can take to becoming a STEM leader. Which will you choose?

 

Prizes

1st: $500 VEX Robotics gift certificate and automatic team qualification for this season's VEX Robotics World Championship

4 Finalists: $100 VEX Robotics gift certificate

Finalists and winners will be selected at each of the following programs and grade ranges, for a total of four (4) prize packages:

• VIQC Elementary School

• VIQC Middle School

• VRC Middle School

• VRC High School

Eligibility

Teams must be part of a registered VEX IQ or VRC  team for the current season.

• This page is for VRC High School enteries only - if you are any other program or grade level, please refer to the Online Challenge Page to find the correct page for your program and grade level.

• Only one entry per team is permitted. However, each team in a multi-team school or club program may submit one entry. For example, teams 123A and 123B could each submit an entry, but team 123A could not submit two entries. Entries must vary in content and presentation to be considered separate entries. 

• Entries submitted in previous years’ Online Challenges are not eligible for submission this year.

Requirements

Rules of the Challenge How does a professional’s use of the design process match yours? As the world continues to become more technical, an increasing number of professions rely on some version of the engineering design process to identify and solve problems. Your submission will use a combination of text and images to identify a specific career or company and explore how its professionals apply and document the steps of a design process in the tasks of their job. Things to keep in mind for a successful submission: Which STEM career or company did you select, and why? What resources did you find to learn about professionals in this career or company and how they use the engineering design process? How do professionals in this career or company apply steps of the engineering design process? How does the professional approach to engineering design match or differ from the approach used by your team? How has participation in VEX Robotics prepared you for a future career?   Technical Details A submission must meet these minimum requirements in order to be judged. Entry is created and produced solely by student team members. It is acceptable for adults to assist with downloading any necessary resources or submitting the story where students may need permission. Format: One PDF file (up to 20MB) that includes all content, including images. Size: Summary report up to 500 -1000 words. Title page, credits, complete parts lists, image captions, and any appended citations are not included in word count. Judges may use a software-based word counter such as http://www.montereylanguages.com/pdf-word-count-online-free-tool.html to verify word counts. Title Page:  Each entry must include a title page that includes Tile of submission Names of students who participated (using first names only is acceptable) Team number  Location of team Upload Instructions Click the green Enter Challenge button on the right side of the screen. Fill out the submission form and type a brief description of your challenge entry in the Full Description box. Click Save. Click the blue Links/Videos button in the upper right of the screen. Enter the URL, title, and description of your video. Click Add Link. Click the blue All Entries button to confirm that your submission is visible.

Judging Information

• Up to 15 points for a submission that identifies a career or company and describes why it was chosen

• Up to 15 points for a description of how the chosen profession or company applies steps of the engineering design process, and how their process compares to the team’s process

• Up to 15 points for describing how participation in VEX Robotics prepares you for a future career

• Up to 15 points for clear presentation of findings and organization of content

• Up to 15 points for the quality of quality and readability of the writing, including spelling, grammar, and sentence structure

• Up to 15 points for the quality and thoroughness of images used to document the project

Current time:
Mon, Oct 7, 2024 6:42 PM CDT

Opens:

Fri, Oct 15, 2021 6:00 AM CDT

Closes:

Tue, Jan 18, 2022 11:59 PM CST

All Entries
View Finalists
View Winners