General Requirements
What every Engineering Portfolio needs before anything else.
Let's start with the basics. These are the core requirements your Engineering Portfolio has to meet before you worry about anything else.
Why Requirements Matter
Judges go through a ton of portfolios at competition. If yours clearly meets all the requirements, it's way easier for them to score (and easier to score well). Missing something basic can really hurt you, even if your technical work is great.
Core Requirements
These are all outlined in the game manual:
No more than 15 pages of content (excluding the cover)
A cover page with your team number (name encouraged)
US Letter (8.5" x 11") or A4 (210mm x 297mm). No other sizes.
Makes navigation easy for judges. Highly recommended.
Sample Cover Page
Your cover page is the first thing judges see. Here's what a solid cover looks like:
Page Structure
A typical Engineering Portfolio includes these sections:
| Section | Purpose | Typical Pages |
|---|---|---|
| Cover Page | Team identity, branding, table of contents | 1 (not counted in total) |
| Team Overview | Intro to your team, roles, mission | 1 |
| Robot Subsystems Overview | Describe each component of your robot, what it does, and how it improved this season | 3 |
| Software/Programming | Highlight your software architecture, unique algorithms, and programming challenges | 1-2 |
| Finances and Sustainability | How your team recruits members, trains/builds skills, and manages finances | 2 |
| Community Impact | Describe your team's outreach, events, and STEM promotion efforts | 2 |
That doesn't quite add up to 15, right? That's because you get some flexibility to combine sections or add extra ones based on what your team's story looks like. Just make sure all the required content is there and the overall flow makes sense.
Next Steps
Now that you know the basics, let's move on to best practices for actually putting your portfolio together.