The Robotics Education and Competition ( RECORDING ) The Foundation and the Dallas Sports Commission recently announced that the REC Foundation VEX Robotics World Championship will return to Dallas from 2021 to 2024.
The REC Foundation VEX Robotics World Championship – which the Guinness Book of World Records considers to be the largest robotics tournament in the world – is an annual, week-long event that celebrates hands-on STEM education. STEM is an interdisciplinary, curriculum-based approach to education in four specific disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
“STEM learning is part of our DNA in Dallas, and the extensive local association of STEM and robotics is not only needed in our schools, but also in recruiting businesses, jobs and the workforce to the Dallas region,” said Monica Paul, Executive Director of the Dallas Sports Commission.
The VEX Robotics event hosts top international robotics teams, who compete in problem-solving and innovation challenges. Normally, the event receives more than 30 thousand students, who compete in teams and in various games using robots built with parts from VEX Robotics.
Dallas last hosted the VEX Robotics World Championship in 2009 and 2010.
“After a thorough search for cities to host the World's Largest Robotics Competition, we couldn't be happier to bring this event back to Dallas in 2021,” said Dan Mantz, CEO of the REC Foundation. “Our home office is in Texas, just outside of Dallas, so we understand firsthand how poised the city is for innovation, STEM education and the ultimate workforce.”
The Dallas Sports Commission was instrumental in the REC Foundation's choice to return to Dallas. “We are proud to collaborate with the Dallas Sports Commission to produce the competition for Dallas,” said Mantz. “When choosing a location, we were very impressed with the Dallas Sports Commission’s vision for the event, as well as their team’s dedication to helping us grow the event and the city’s commitment to STEM.”
The REC Foundation's goal is to increase student interest and engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by engaging students in accessible, practical and sustainable robotics engineering programs.
The VEX Robotics World Championship showcases students' technical skills and achievements through the following programs:
1. VEX IQ Challenge (open to middle and high school students)
2. VEX Robotics Competition (open to middle and high school students)
3. VEX U (open to university students)
The REC Foundation and VEX Robotics also encourage teamwork, collaboration and diversity within the STEM community through programs like Girl Powered. The Girl Powered initiative provides tools and support to students and mentors to promote female involvement in STEM and build an environment where students' confidence and skills can flourish.
Here are some of the benefits of the program:
- VEX Robotics is a provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities and robotics teams around the world.
- The VEX IQ and VEX EDR product lines cover elementary, middle and high schools with affordable, scalable and cost-effective robotic resolutions.
- In addition to science and engineering policies, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, management and problem solving between groups.
- The program allows educators to quickly customize projects to meet students' skill level as they nurture and prepare the STEM problem solvers of the future.
The VEX challenge
To gain access to the elite VEX competition, robotics teams from various countries must first compete in local-level shows throughout the year. This leads to 1,650 selected teams successfully reaching the VEX Robotics World Championship.
Typically, the VEX Robotics Challenge has robots perform a specific game over two rounds. The first course of each match is an autonomous round, in which the robot must complete tasks without any intervention from the pilots. In the next round, the student pilots with the gamepads can continue examining the robots until the end of the match.
Fortunately, students have the opportunity to learn and excel in other competitions throughout the year. For example, in the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship , an international robotics event for high schools, attended by more than 20,000 students from 42 countries. FIRST is considered one of the most extensive robotics tournaments for schoolchildren in the world.
The FIRST competition was unique because it combined high school sports with the rigors of science and technology.
Under strict policies, limited resources and tight time constraints, teams are challenged to raise funds, produce a brand and build and program robots to perform tasks against competitors. For example, in the last event competition, FIRST FORTRESS, Alliances worked together to break through opponents' reinforcements, weaken their tower, and capture the opposing tower.
The robots scored points by opposing their opponents' arguments and throwing stones at the goals of the opposite tower. During the final 20 seconds of the match, the robots were able to surround and climb the opposing tower to capture it.
The four-day competition came to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday night in the presence of a supportive crowd of over 40,000 people, when four clubs won the coveted FIRST Robotics Competition Championship Winning Alliance.
“It’s unusual to see this kind of energy and commitment from high school students,” says Aaron Pickering, FIRST spokesperson. “But it’s important at a time when STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) professions are growing 1.7 times faster than non-STEM careers in the US, but there is still not enough talent enrolled in the field.”
A look at the competing teams makes it clear just how talented some of these students are. “There’s an amazing women’s team I just met who are killing it; a girl who was an inspiration to graduate with an engineering degree from Purdue next year after defeating depression thanks to FIRST; and a hapless team from South Central Los Angeles who helped invent the new school building,” Pickering added.