Judging Criteria

Projects are judged on overall quality and on the progress that your team makes during the AiS Challenge year. Remember that it is important to submit a project that is complete. Modest but complete results are more impressive than a grand scheme with no solid results.

When examining projects, the judges consider the scientific content; the effectiveness of the computational approach; the creativity, innovation, and initiative that you showed in developing and carrying out the project; and the clarity of your presentation.

As you prepare your project for the judging, you might want to use the following checklist of items that the judges will consider.

1. Scientific Content

• Is the scientific content significant?
• Do you have a plan or procedure for getting a solution?
• Do you clearly recognize and define the variables?
• Do you recognize when you need to simplify the problem so that you can solve it?
• Have you documented your assumptions?
• Is a computer needed for this project or could you have completed it on a calculator?
• Is this a supercomputing project?
• Do you have adequate data to support your conclusions?
• Do you recognize the limitations of the data?
• Have you shown how the project ties in with related research?
• Do you know what additional research is indicated?

2. Effectiveness of the Computational Approach

• Is your computational approach appropriate for the project?
• Have you tested your software to see how it will perform in actual use?
• Does your software solution cover the problem you defined for your project?
• If you borrowed code do you understand the model and the model's limitations?

3. Creativity and Innovation

• Where did you get the idea for the project? Was it an original idea that you developed from reading or work that you have done, or did you derive it from a textbook?
• To solve the problem, did you devise a new solution or use a known solution in a creative way?
• In interpreting the data, have you contributed new insights or shown new intuitions?

4. Clarity, Conciseness, and Organization

• Did you state the problem clearly?
• Did you clearly explain the purpose of the project, the procedures used, and the results or conclusions of your work?
• Did you clearly show your data and results?
• Is your software documented, and have you included sufficient comments in your source code?
• Did you acknowledge all of the help that you received?

5. Teamwork

• Do all members of your team understand the problem and your conclusions?
• Did you divide the work so that you took advantage of each member's skills?
  (Note: Not all members need to contribute equally.)
• Does your team consider differences of opinion and come to an amiable solution?

Original Code versus Borrowed Code.

You must decide whether to write your own computer code or borrow existing code. The judges might give credit to a team for writing an original program; however, teams who use existing code are not downgraded. In making this decision, you should look at your team's programming strengths, the type of code you need for the problem you are working on, and the approach that will give you the best overall solution.

If you do use borrowed code, be sure to acknowledge the originator of the code. Indicate any modifications that you make to the code and explain the purpose of the modifications.