Students from around the Midwest region will soon gather at Missouri University of Science and Technology to compete at the Missouri state VEX Championship, a regional robotics competition for middle- and high-school students.

The VEX competition will be held Saturday, Feb. 20, in Missouri S&T’s Student Recreation Center and the adjoining Gale Bullman Building, located at 10th Street and Bishop Avenue (U.S. Highway 63).

The VEX Championship is a nationwide robotics competition that involves teams of up to 10 students grades 8-12. Each team designs, builds and programs robots for a tournament-style competition.

Each year, VEX robotics offers an engineering challenge to students in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, use the VEX Robotics Design System to build innovative robots designed to score the most points possible in qualification matches, elimination matches and skills challenges.

Participants in this year’s competition – titled “Nothing But Net” – will try to earn the most points possible by using their robots to toss plastic balls into various baskets and goals. Thirty-six teams from throughout the area are expected to take part in the Missouri S&T event.

“Hosting VEX robotics at Missouri S&T is a great fit for us that goes along with our support for Project Lead The Way,” says Timothy Albers, director of marketing and enrollment development in enrollment management at Missouri S&T. “The program uses the robots built for the competition in the classroom, so the students can learn the practical applications of engineering and technology at a young age.”

The competition is sponsored by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation. For more information about VEX robotics, visit roboticseducation.org or vexrobotics.com.