Judging

Overview

Our aim is to maintain an open and fair process for evaluating each team’s performance. Teams will be scored by judges using a point system. The judging process will have two stages: online content (worth up to 75 points) and live presentation (worth up to 25 points).

Judge selection

  • Judges will be selected from a pool of BIOMOD faculty mentors and outside experts.
  • Mentors will not evaluate their own team.
  • Judges’ names will be disclosed in the QuickGuide.

Online content scoring

  • Maximum combined score for online content is 75 points (= 50 points for wiki + 25 points for internet video)
  • Scores will be determined by a range-voting system
  • Five (5) judges will be randomly assigned to each team
  • Judges will evaluate each project according to a rubric (see below) and assign a point value in each category.
  • Highest and lowest judges’ total scores are excluded to remove outliers.
  • Three remaining judges’ scores will each weighted by 1/3 and combined to determine the total scores for each category.

Live presentation scoring

  • All judges present at the Jamboree will be asked to rate all presentations.
  • Highest and lowest judges’ total scores are excluded to remove outliers.
  • The remaining n judges’ scores will be weighted by 1/n and combined to determine the total scores for the presentation.

Requirement compliance

  • Teams are responsible for satisfying all project criteria described on this page and the requirements page, including maximum team size (8 undergraduate students, plus mentors).
  • Judges have discretion to award points for meeting requirements for video and presentation length.
  • We reserve the right to disqualify teams from receiving awards if they fail to adhere to BIOMOD requirements. Final decisions are at the discretion of the BIOMOD Foundation Board of Directors.

Scoring

• Project Website (50 points)

Project Idea (20 points)

  • Relevance: Has the team made a strong case that their project idea is scientifically and/or technologically interesting? (5 points)

  • Specification: Are the project goals well-defined? (i.e. Does the team explicitly state what criteria need to be met in order to consider the project a success?) (5 points)

  • Feasibility: Was the proposed solution feasible? (i.e. Was it reasonable to expect that the solution could be implemented by a BIOMOD team in one summer?) (5 points)

  • Merit: Is the proposed solution a good one? Is it particularly elegant or innovative? (5 points)

Project Documentation (20 points)

  • Clarity: Is the project description well-written and easy to understand? Does it include the background and motivation of the project, methods, results, and discussion? Are the figures easy to understand? (10 points)
  • Transparency: Are all of the raw experimental data and source files easily accessible? Would it be straightforward to attempt to reproduce the team’s results? (5 points)
  • Layout: Is the team’s project page arranged in a clear and logical fashion? (5 points)

Project Execution (10 points)

  • Execution: Did the team accomplish what they set out to do? (10 points)

• YouTube video (25 points)

  • Overall impact: Was the video interesting? Did you want to watch more than once? (10 points)
  • Clarity: Was the project described in a simple and clear manner that could be easily understood by a wide audience? (10 points)
  • Production: Was the video duration 3 minutes or less? Was the sound and video high quality? Were the images focused and scaled properly? (5 points)

• Presentation (25 points)

  • Content: Were the project goals clearly stated? Were the slides clear and easy to understand? Was the team clear and open what work they accomplished? (10 points)
  • Delivery: Did the speaker(s) give a well-rehearsed, well-paced presentation? Did the speaker(s) engage with the audience and maintain good eye contact? Did the team finish promptly within the time limit? Was the presentation interesting? fun? clever? memorable? (10 points)
  • Q&A: Did the team provide satisfactory responses to audience questions? (5 points)

Awards

Top Prizes

  • Grand prize = 1st highest total combined points from wiki + video + presentation
  • 1st runner up = 2nd highest total combined points from wiki + video + presentation
  • 2nd runner up = 3rd highest total combined points from wiki + video + presentation

Category awards

  • Best Project Website = 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place
  • Best YouTube Video = 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place
  • Best Presentation = 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place
  • Audience favorite = 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place

 

Project awards

  • Bronze: Team satisfied all minimum requirements for judging (Completed website, video, and presentation).
  • Silver: Overall score is above 50% of all teams.
  • Gold: Overall score is above 75% of all teams.

 

Special awards

  • Molecular Robotics Award
  • Best ELSI Practice Award
  • Best Team T-shirt Award

 

Feedback

  • After the jamboree, teams will receive individual score reports so they can learn how they fared in each category.

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