In this lesson:
Judges play an important role in the Technovation students' learning process.
- Receiving scores and feedback from professionals is a key part of learning for Technovation participants.
- 2,300 volunteer Judges worldwide provide scores and personalized feedback to 20,000 girls from 60+ countries.
- This feedback helps girls grow in technology and entrepreneurship, shaping them into the leaders we need today and in the future!
- As a judge you contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Gender Equality and Quality Education.
Where Will I Judge?
Hover over each card to learn about the ways that Judges can share feedback with teams.
Online
Online judging is available for the Quarterfinals and Semifinals round of judging.
In-Person
In-person judging is only available in the Quarterfinals of judging.
The Judge Role
- Provide numeric scores and written feedback to encourage teams to continue building their projects
- Review at least 5 submissions from our 3 divisions
- Contribute to our World Summit by submitting scores that will helping determine the top 15 Technovation teams
- Time Commitment: Judges spend a total of 3+ hours, including a 30-minute online training by Technovation and 30-60 minutes per submission review.
Judge Registration
Judge registration will be open April 7 – May 26 and June 2 – 18, 2025. Registered Judges have the opportunity to review and submit student projects in the quarterfinal and semi-final rounds.
Quarterfinals (Round 1)
The first round of virtual judging and Regional Pitch Events will take place from May 8 – June 2, 2025. Top scoring teams will advance to the next round. You will judge in this round.
Semifinals (Round 2)
The second round of judging will take place from June 9 – June 23, 2025. Judges use the same rubrics to score the Semifinal teams in order to help to choose our finalists. You will judge in this round.
World Summit
15 finalist teams (5 beginner, 5 junior, and 5 senior) chosen from the top scorers of the Semifinals will be invited to participate in Technovation’s World Summit in October 2025. A panel of judges will be selected for each division by Technovation from our corporate partners.
Judging Rubrics
Technovation provides a rubric to assess projects in each division. Rubrics are distinct for each division to better match the learning goals of the submission requirements and age of students.
Rubrics are revised year-to-year, returning Judges are encouraged to review the rubrics to ensure feedback and score are inline with the current season’s standards.
Beginner Division Rubric
Students in the Beginner Division
are 8-12 years old
Junior Division
Rubric
Students in the Junior Division are 13-15 years old
Senior Division
Rubric
Students in the Senior Division are 16-18 years old
Scoring Reference Point
This table should give you an idea of where total scores should fall for a project, so it is reflective of the level of effort and output you see in the submission. For example, a strong submission that meets most if not all the rubric requirements should be in the range of a high score. A submission that is missing requirements or lacks the depth of information required in multiple areas should result in a low score.
Division
Low Score
Moderate Score
High Score
Beginner
10-20
25-30
45-50
Junior
14-28
35-42
63-70
Senior
16-32
40-48
72-80
Judging Guidelines: AI
- AI-generated project feedback is prohibited. Judges must provide their own evaluations and personalized feedback—AI tools cannot be used to assess or generate comments on student projects.
- Why? Participants have not given permission for their work to be processed by AI tools. Additionally, we seek thoughtful, individualized feedback from each judge to help participants learn and grow from your expertise.
- Consequences of AI use: Suspected use of AI-generated feedback may result in suspension from judging and no certificate issued.
Examples of Quality Feedback from Judges
Below are samples of high quality feedback that Judges have given teams in previous season. You will learn more about how to provide feedback in the next lesson.
I like very much your short description of the project. It depicts perfectly what you’re willing to achieve with your app and clearly states objectives, your mission, and the techniques you used to make your application possible.
The presentation was extremely well put together and clear. The issues being affected were clearly discussed such as the statistics on epilepsy. To improve there could have been more talk on what was changed depending on the findings.
This demonstrates the team has coded an app that works and has all the user features described in their pitch video which is excellent. The team could describe what features they intend to add to the app in the future to improve even more.
The improvements based on feedback of the UI being too bright shows that your open and willing to listen to constructive to feedback and to adapt. The marketing and distribution section seems reasonable and realistic.
This is a very strong section of the submission! I love how clearly you’ve laid out your wireframe, it really showed your design process. Thank you for including so many screenshots and design images. Your resourcefulness in troubleshooting how to iterate/improve your app by turning to the Thunkable community and YouTube are very relatable in a real-would environment. A very impressive submission for this division.
Judge Recognition
To recognize our Judges for their dedication and support we will award Judge certificates and an accompanying letter of appreciation to our active Judges at the close of the season. You must score at least five submissions to receive a certificate.
If a judge’s score is removed due to non-compliance with guidelines, it will not be included in the total number of submissions scored.
Please note that we are unable to provide personalized letters of recommendation to Judges.
Bronze Judge
5 Scored Submissions
Silver Judge
6-10 Scored Submissions
Gold Judge
11+ Scored Submissions
I still have a question
You can always reach out to Technovation’s Volunteer Engagement Team on Slack or at [email protected].
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