Portfolios
Portfolios are competitive elements that summarize to the judges everything that your team has done. Separated into Project Management, Enterprise, and Engineering, these portfolios are limited by page count, so teams must select what they share wisely.
VOCAB TIP: In this section, and in many of the powerpoint guides within this Virtual Training Guide, we’ll often refer to the written and graphic material that you produce for your competitive elements as “content.” Additionally, written content is also referred to as “copy.”
Enterprise Portfolio
Enterprise within the F1 in Schools competition refers to all aspects of the team itself – including Marketing and Sponsorship, Digital Media, and Team Identity. In addition, the Enterprise portfolio must include information on the team’s sustainability strategy. The Enterprise portfolio is judged in combination with a team’s Pit Display by the Enterprise Judges. These judges will review the portfolio prior to the Pit Display Interview and may use it to determine what topics they ask for clarification on during the interview.
Engineering Portfolio
The Engineering Portfolio takes Judges through the design, manufacture, and test stages of your F1 in Schools car. Each team lays out their portfolio in the order they choose, however, common layouts include using the engineering design cycle or “front-to-back” car components as a guide. The portfolio is reviewed before the engineering interview by the engineering judges. In combination with the engineering interview, the judges score the Design & Engineering Scorecard (see the Competitive Regulations) so it’s important to touch on all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) mentioned in the scorecard within the Engineering Portfolio. This includes Design Concepts, CAD modeling, Computer-Aided Analysis used for virtual testing, and the use of CAM/CNC.
Project Management Portfolio
Project Management is a process followed to help ensure that all project work that must be completed to create a product, service or result is understood, planned and finished within the constraints of time (the schedule), cost (the budget) and quality. For F1 in Schools teams, this includes everything from budgeting their time to their money. The Project Management portfolio walks judges through the project management process that each team takes to initiate, plan, execute, monitor, and evaluate their project. For the Development Class, the order of content within the portfolio, unlike the Engineering Portfolio, is dictated by the Competitive Regulations. However, not the page limit for each topic! Keep in mind that you can allocate more or less space to each topic as your team sees fit as long as the maximum page limit is adhered to. To better familiarize yourself with the project management process and terms that are used in the Competitive Regulations, teams should review the Project Management unit in this Virtual Training Guide, or the Project Management Guide released by F1 in Schools and the Project Management Institute.
NOTE: Development and Professional Class have different requirements for portfolio elements. Be sure to double check the rules for page limits and the types of portfolios you have to produce!
Example Portfolios
Over the years, Portfolios within the F1 in Schools competition have changed. Back before 2014, teams had to cram all their engineering and enterprise content into one portfolio! Despite changes in page regulations, example portfolios from past teams can provide an example of how to format documents for cohesive team identity, how to layout engineering content, and the content itself can give helpful insight into how other teams have competed at the National and World Finals. Use the button below to access example portfolios form past competitive teams. Please remember that these were shared with generosity from past competitors to help develop better US and Canadian teams. Do not share the material and teams are reminded of the plagiarism pledge that they will have to sign at competition.
Quick Tips!
Be on Brand! Team identity is judged from your elements as a whole, but especially from your portfolios and pit display. When developing the look and feel of your portfolios, keep your team’s branding and identity in mind. Carry graphic elements, icons, fonts and colors throughout project elements to give a cohesive look.
Play with Printing Parameters! While portfolios are reviewed by judges digitally beforehand, physical copies play a large role at competition. The quality of your printing and binding can help set your team apart from the rest! It’s important to not wait until the last minute when it comes to printing your portfolios so you can experiment with printing settings (including margins and bleed), binding styles, paper weights, and more. While there is not box on the rubric for portfolio printing – quality can help elevate your project elements.
Remember to keep in mind that different printers print colors differently! Cohesive brands will maintain shades of their colors throughout materials. Give yourself time to work with your printers to coordinate colors.
Nothing beats paper! When developing your portfolios, especially your copy, some teams find it helpful to print off a copy of the pages as they complete them to review. This allows your team (and any potential helpful parents, lead adults, or teachers who may help your review) to see text sizing, layout and image quality. It’s very easy to get caught up when designing digitally since you can zoom in and out. You may realize size 10 text is easy to read on your computer screen but impossible on paper!
Test pages don’t have to be printed with your final printing procedure but keep scaling to 100%. Remember, save funds to print a high-quality portfolio at the end for competition, but use household printers to see a test print!
Portfolios can be more than just competitive elements! After competition, many teams use portfolios to show their sponsors and schools everything they accomplished. This can be great for Return on Investment (ROI) for current sponsors to see how their funds helped your team and a great way to show potential future sponsors everything that they could help support.
Keep in mind that each portfolio is judged by a separate judging team – so it’s a good idea to develop portfolios that are standalone competitive elements but that are cohesive enough to maintain your team identity and branding.