Get Excited About Robotics (GEAR) is an eight week robotics challenge held each spring that is designed to excite young students in grades K-8 about engineering. We believe that all children should have equal access to opportunities, therefore there is no cost to participants other than time and travel. The competition is open to all interested elementary and middle schools, homeschool groups, and after school clubs (sorry, no sign-up of individual students). Working in teams of 3-5 students, the challenge requires teams to use LEGO Spike Prime robotics kit or the older LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 kits to design, program, troubleshoot, test, and improve their robots at their schools/clubs under the guidance of a teacher/coach. In addition to the robotics kit, a laptop is required to program the robot. The theme of the competition changes every year and is motivated by real world applications of robotics (automated farming, robotic surgery, unmanned space travel, etc.). It is recommended that teams meet at least once a week for 1.5 h during the competition season.

Program faculty lead for GEAR is Dr. Tanja Karp from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

[email protected]       Learn more about GEAR

The FIRST® TECH CHALLENGE (FTC) is a mid-level robotics competition for students in grades 7th-12th (ages 12-18). FTC is designed for those who want to compete head-to-head using a sports model. Teams of 10+ students - including coaches, mentors, and volunteers - are required to develop a strategy and construct robots based on sound engineering principles. Teams design, build and program robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams to solve the game task for a given year. The robot kit is reusable from year to year and is programmed using a variety of languages. Awards are given for the competition, as well as for community outreach, design and other real-world accomplishments.

Heather Sherrill
Director, STEM Outreach & Engagement 
[email protected]

Garrett Smith
Robotics Program Assistant
[email protected]

Learn more about FIRST

Air Battles is a drone competion, hosted by Frendship High School. It is an intermediate program with teams made up of 4 students that complete against other area schools. Due to high interest and limited space, students are selected through an application process.

• VEX U is a version of the VEX Robotics Competition that has been modified for collegiate / university students. Teams build two robots using the VEX EDR robotics platform that work together to solve an engineering challenge presented in the form of a game. Each year’s VEX U game is typically similar in structure and rules to its corresponding VEX Robotics Competition game. However, a larger emphasis is placed on programming, sensors, and advanced build techniques such as 3D printing. Also, VEX U teams are allowed more customization and greater flexibility than other grade levels while providing the effective costs and real-world limitations of a restricted development environment.
• Contact for Vex U - Heather Sherrill- [email protected]