Documenting Your Engineering

Lesson

Judges cannot see the weeks of thinking, testing and fixing behind your robot just by looking at it. Your documentation makes that work visible. It also helps your own team: when someone asks why the intake has four wheels instead of two, the answer is already written down. The good news is that strong documentation does not come from one heroic weekend before an event. It comes from a small habit repeated at every meeting.

Build a daily logging habit

1
Name a log owner
At the start of each meeting, one person is responsible for the entry. Rotate this role so everyone learns to document.
2
Write the goal first
Before work starts, write one or two sentences about what the team wants to achieve today.
3
Capture as you go
Take photos, note measurements and save screenshots while you work, not from memory at the end.
4
Record results with numbers
Write what worked, what failed and what you measured, for example times, distances or success rates.
5
Close with next steps
In the last five minutes, list the next tasks and who owns each one.

From log to portfolio page

The daily log is your raw material: complete, messy and in date order. A portfolio page is a selected, edited story about one problem. To build one, read through your log, find a problem you solved, and pull together the entries, photos and data that tell that story. Most pages follow the same loop your team already uses when it builds and tests.

One portfolio page usually tells the story of one or more trips around this loop: prototype, test, analyse and refine.

Section	What to write	Question it answers
Problem	The specific issue, with a number if possible	What was wrong or needed?
Options	Two or three ideas you considered	What else could you have done?
Decision	The option chosen and the reasons	Why this one?
Test	How you tested it, how many trials, same setup each time	How do you know it works?
Result	Measured outcome, compared with before	What changed?
Next step	What you will improve or test next	What did you learn?

Weak vs strong entries

Weak entry	Stronger entry
Worked on the intake.	Tested the intake on 20 game elements: 13 collected. Elements slipped past the side rollers.
Changed the wheels.	Replaced hard wheels with softer compliant wheels. Same 20-element test: 18 collected.
Code is better now.	Added a sensor check so the intake stops when an element is held. Fewer jams in five practice runs.
Next time: fix stuff.	Next: test the intake at full drive speed. Owner: build sub-team.

Use evidence with captions

Photos: show the before and after of a change, taken from the same angle.
CAD screenshots: show a design or a change between versions, with key dimensions visible.
Code: show only a short, important snippet and explain what it does in plain words.
Data: use a small table or chart with labelled units and the number of trials.
Captions: every image needs one that says what it shows and why it matters.

TEXT

1Figure [number]: [what the image shows].
2[What it proves or what changed], measured by [test and number of trials].
3
4Example (illustrative):
5Figure 3: Intake version 2 with compliant wheels.
6Collected 18 of 20 game elements, up from 13 of 20 with version 1.

A simple caption template. Fill each part with your own facts.

Keep it readable

Start each page with a clear heading that names the problem.
Use short paragraphs, bullet points and bold key numbers.
Keep text and images next to the claims they support.
Use the same fonts, colours and layout on every page.
Ask a team member who did not write the page to read it and explain it back to you.

Key terms

Daily engineering log: A dated record of every meeting with the goal, work done, results and next steps.
Engineering portfolio: A selected, edited document that presents your team's engineering story to judges.
Evidence: A photo, CAD screenshot, code snippet or data set that proves a claim on your page.
Caption: A short line under an image or chart that says what it shows and why it matters.
Iteration: One cycle of changing a design, testing it and learning from the result.

Practical exercise

Turn your log into one portfolio page

1Agree on a five-part log template (header, goal, work done, results, next steps) and use it at your next three meetings.
2Read through your log and choose one problem your team actually solved.
3Collect the related photos, CAD screenshots, code and data into one folder.
4Write one page with the six sections: problem, options, decision, test, result and next step.
5Add at least two pieces of evidence, each with a caption using the template from this lesson.
6Ask a teammate who did not write the page to read it and list anything unclear, then revise.

Deliverable: One finished portfolio page with six sections and at least two captioned pieces of evidence, plus the log entries it was built from.

Knowledge check

Answer every question, then check your answers.