Fantasy Student Robotics Competition on YouTube This Saturday
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/24/20
Competitive
student robotics are back in business. On Saturday, Apr. 25, 2020,
the Robotics
Education and Competition (REC) Foundation will
be broadcasting a fantasy robotics competition on YouTube.
Competitors will be virtually generated using past match results from
the VEX
IQ Challenge Squared Away
and VEX
Robotics Competition Tower Takeover
world championships, with the winners of the new tournament
recognized during the "VEX
Virtual Worlds Celebration."
The
in-person event scheduled for this year was canceled due to COVID-19.
Typically, that draws 25,000 attendees from across the world. During
the live event, students in grades three through college compete with
custom-built robots in timed robotic matches.
Digital
replacements will take place on the VEX
Robotics YouTube channel.
The VEX
Robotics Competition Group
(for middle school, high school and college competitors) will run,
starting at 10 a.m. central time; the VEX
IQ Challenge
Group (featuring elementary and middle school student teams) will run
at 11:30 a.m. central time.
"Although
we had to cancel the 2020 VEX Robotics World Championship due to the
COVID-19 outbreak, we're still planning to bring the excitement of
this event to our community," said Dan Mantz, CEO of the
Foundation, in a statement. "The nearly one million students
worldwide who participate in our competitions have worked hard this
past season, and we're excited to highlight their extraordinary
achievements."
Qualifying
match schedules are listed on
the REC Foundation RobotEvents.com website.
The
Foundation works to engage students in STEM activities, including
robotics. VEX
Robotics
is a company that provides educational and competitive robotics gear
to schools and universities.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.