Interviewing for Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All Star Awards at State CMP

Renee Becker-Blau
2 days ago
4 min read

Hello Wisconsin Teams!

We've received a few questions about the Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All Star Process for the Wisconsin State Championship.

Below we've provided some additional insight into:

The two options for how Districts judge in person teams for EI & RAS at District State Championship events from the public FRC Judge Manual
The option FIRST Wisconsin will be using at the 2026 Wisconsin State Championship along with details on size of space, general timing, and when more information will be available
Award descriptions from the Awards Page of the FIRST Website.

Judging Engineering Inspiration (EI) and Rookie All Star (RAS) Awards at State

(Public FRC Judge Manual, Rev 2 - 2/18/26, pg 33, accessed 3/30/26)

Teams that win Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All Star during the season are the only teams eligible to be judged for these awards at the District Championship Event.

Winning these awards during the season, however, does not qualify a team to compete with their robot at the Wisconsin State Championship Event.

If a team qualifies to compete for either EI or RAS, but their robot does not, and they choose to not attend the event in person, they may elect to be interviewed via teleconference or video chat.

Teams who elect to be judged remotely must be coordinated by the JA and do not impact how in-person judging should occur.
Interviews may be conducted by phone or video conference, as long as at least 2 adults are participating with the students.
This interview does not need to take place concurrently with the event, it will happen before the start of the event.
Every team interviewed must have a fair opportunity for selection.

District Championships vary in space so there are two options for how Districts could judge in person teams for EI & RAS at the District Championship Event:

Option 1: If there is not room for all teams to have a pit space, then all eligible teams must be interviewed outside of the pits (consider using the FIA & FLA rooms on Day 2). The interview process for this award should follow the same method for FIRST Impact Award & FIRST Leadership Award.

Option 2: If all of the teams that are eligible for the EI / RAS Awards are given a pit space at the event, then teams should be interviewed in the pits. Please remember that only eligible teams (they must have won EI or RAS at a district event) should be interviewed for EI / RAS.

FIRST Wisconsin EI & RAS Process:

FIRST Wisconsin will be moving forward with Option 1, "all eligible teams must be interviewed outside of the pits" and a designated interview space has been identified for use at the Wisconsin State Championship.

Key Updates:

Interview Date and Time Ranges will be provided to the four Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All Star teams by Wednesday, April 8th before 9:00pm CT.
Similar to the amount of space in a 10x10 pit, the designated interview space has room for up to ten students plus a silent observer.
These "pit-style" interviews will take place over a period of 20 minutes.
Bring any pit materials that the team feels are relevant to the interview.
Similar to how Impact Schedules are handled, if you need to switch spots, you are responsible for reaching out to another team and getting both teams' mentors to approve it.
Teams will have an opportunity to view the designated interview space for in-person interviews on Friday, April 17th - the exact time will be communicated to teams in the email going out by April 8th.
If your team did not qualify with their robot to compete at the State Championship, you may request to have your interview remotely instead.
- We encourage you to consider coming to the event on Sunday so your team can be present for the award ceremony, but we understand that traveling might be a burden.

Award Descriptions:

Engineering Inspiration Award sponsored by SpaceX

Description

Celebrates a team who demonstrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.

Guidelines

A team must be able to describe the following attributes, with an emphasis on the most recent year’s efforts, and with performance indicators that provide measurable success of their efforts:

The extent and inventiveness of the team’s efforts to recruit students to engineering or other STEM fields.
Extent and effectiveness of the team’s community outreach efforts.
A commitment to science and technology education among the team, school, and community.
Achievement of the FIRST mission and ability to communicate that at the competition and away from it.
Efforts are ongoing, not strictly concentrated on the build and competition season.

Eligibility and Space for Interviews at the Wisconsin State Championship

At District Championship, only District teams that have won Engineering Inspiration Award at a District event during the current season are eligible.

A designated interview space will be used for this award at the Wisconsin State Championship. Teams should not prepare a presentation for this interview. The purpose of this interview is to replace the traditional pit interview.

Rookie All Star Award

Description

Celebrates the rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science and technology.

Guidelines

This team seems like a “FIRST Impact Award team in the making.” (Community activities, leadership, vision, spirit, etc.)
The team is a true partnership between school or organization and sponsors.
The team understands what FIRST is really trying to accomplish – realizes that technical stuff is fun, challenging, and offers a future.
This team has built a robot appropriate to the game’s challenges.

Eligibility and Space for Interviews at the Wisconsin State Championship

At District Championship, only District teams that have won Rookie All-Star Award at a District event during the current season are eligible.

We look forward to seeing our teams at the State Championship Event!

Best,

Renee Becker-Blau