FAQ

1. How do I participate?

Simply register for the competition, and read the instructions.

2. Is my state involved or territory involved?

You can check on the States Page. By following the link to your state or territory's page, you can get more information about your state or territory's participation and your state coordinator’s contact info.

3. If my country is not involved can I still participate?

Yes. We want every student to have an opportunity to participate who wants to. We have a Wild Card Category for teams who live in places that have not yet formally joined the RWDC. You will compete against teams from schools in other countries that have not yet officially joined.

4. Can I use a different CAD tool than PTC Creo and still participate?

Yes. You can use any software tools that you choose. Through generous corporate donations, we provide everyone with all of the software you need to participate TOTALLY FREE. But if you are paying for an alternative software package that you prefer, you may use it.

5. What are the minimum hardware requirements for the software necessary for the Challenge?

See the software page

6. What are the deadlines for the Challenge?

All of the deadlines are available here.

7. Where can I get support?

For installation questions on PTC Mathcad and PTC Creo, users can complete a Support Form
For Technical questions, users can submit here
For registration/general questions, users can contact Jeffrey Coppola

Technical Questions:

1. What is the page limit of the technical report? It was 80 pages last year, and we are assuming it is the same, but the challenge is much more complex this year; we are already close to exceeding it.

The page limit is the same as last year (i.e., 80 pages). The challenge will be condensing and covering all the areas of the challenge (team submission, team engagement, document the system design, document the mission plan, and document the business case) at an appropriate level. Please remember to use concise and clear language to portray and relay what you need to for the challenge. This is a skill the students will need to establish and improve upon throughout their academic and professional careers.

Here are some resources that should be helpful:

Also, please keep in mind that teams can lose up to 15 points if the Engineering Notebook is more than 80 pages or if the required paragraph order is not followed.

2. How do I get started finding out what equipment I should use for my design, how much it costs, and how the equipment performs? Some specific part of the challenge is unclear to me. What do I do?

The Detailed background document available on the getting started page has a listing of some major UAV components that you might want to use for your aircraft. Teams are not limited to the list in the detailed background but this can help generate ideas of what is available. You can then add additional ideas from more research you do yourselves.

The Detailed background is also a resource that expands to add more details about specific challenge areas such as personnel payment requirements or FAA regulations for that years challenge.

3. I have more than one design. How do I compare my designs to tell which one is better? How do I organize my components?

The calculator tool provided on the Getting Started page gives you a place where you can fill in which components you want to move forward with to measure their performance through the Objective Function (a measure of performance for areas related to the challenge of that year). The Objective function typically has several sub components to it each measuring a different performance area of your design. The Calculator tool allows you to make a quick comparison between your different designs regardless of their complexity. This can be sued to compare designs or see how performance is effected by changes in design components.