Greenville, TX – August 25, 2017 – The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation announced today that the VEX Robotics World Championship, now entering its 10^th year, will bring together the top 1,400 student-led robotics teams from around the world to Louisville, Ky. on April 19-25, 2017. The new dates mark a dramatic program change to provide teams with a superior event experience as they compete in the largest and fastest growing international robotics programs – the VEX IQ Challenge, the VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U.

As always, the VEX Robotics World Championship will feature top teams from around the world in the VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U with a revised schedule as follows:

• The VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U will open to middle school, high school and university teams on Wednesday, April 19, and culminate with finals, awards and a team party at Kentucky Kingdom on Saturday, April 22.
• The VEX IQ Challenge will open to elementary school and middle school teams on Sunday, April 23, and culminate with finals, awards, and a team party at Kentucky Kingdom on Tuesday, April 25.

“The REC Foundation is committed to offering our VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Competition and VEX U teams with the best experience possible, and this year it means extending the VEX Robotics World Championship to accommodate more teams and open up more travel and lodging options,” said Jason Morrella, president of the REC Foundation. “Students and their parents, teachers, and coaches will be pleased to know that the new event format will only serve to improve the experience for everyone attending.”

Annually, the REC Foundation presents a series of robotics engineering programs that engage students from elementary school through college classrooms and at after-school competitions in hands-on technology challenges that build their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Of the 20,000 international teams expected to compete this season, only the best 1,400 teams will descend on Louisville, Kentucky to strategize and challenge each other with the current 2016-2017 season games: VEX IQ Challenge Crossover and VEX Robotics Competition Starstruck. Students around the world have already begun designing, building, and programming robots to compete this season at more than 1,350 local, state, and regional competition events.

At the close of competition on Saturday, April 22, and Tuesday, April 25, teams will be invited to the state-of-the-art Kentucky Kingdom amusement park for a private party.

The VEX Robotics World Championship is presented by the REC Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation and additionally sponsored by Autodesk, Chevron, EMC Corporation, Harris Corporation, NASA, Texas Instruments, HEXBUG, Robomatter, RackSolutions and Innovation First International. For more information visit RoboticsEducation.org/VEXworlds.

About the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation

The REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work. For more information, please visit www.RoboticsEducation.org or for details on upcoming events, please visit www.RobotEvents.com.

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