Louisville, KY – May 1, 2018 – Today, The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation crowned the VEX IQ Challenge (VIQC) Elementary & Middle School World Champions at VEX Worlds 2018. Teams from Canada, China, United Kingdom & United States brought home trophies for their achievements in robotics education including computational thinking, teamwork, and coding.
“It’s critical that we reach students as early as possible in order to get them interested in STEM fields. This is especially true for young girls who statistically lose interest in middle school due to a multitude of reasons,” said Dan Mantz, CEO and chairman of the board of the REC Foundation. “Through the VEX IQ Challenge and our Girl Powered initiative, we’re creating programs that make STEM and computer science fun and engaging for all students.”
2018 World Champions include:
Over 30,000 people including 1,648 teams from 30 nations have converged on Louisville, KY for the 11th annual VEX Worlds. The week-long celebration of STEM, diversity, and robotics kicked-off with the VEX Robotics Competition & VEX U World Championships which crowned middle school, high school, and university champions from China, Canada, and the United States.
“The technical skills and sportsmanship that VEX IQ Challenge participants show at such a young age truly inspires me,” said Paul Copioli, President of VEX Robotics. “We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for these bright students as they continue their education and move into the workforce.”
The three-day competition was highlighted by the unveil of the new 2018-19 VEX IQ Challenge game – Next Level. Students will have a year to design a robot to play the game, which is now available at http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexiq/competition.
As of today, VEX Worlds has secured the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title of Largest robot competition.
The event is presented by the REC Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation, and is sponsored by Autodesk, Dell, NASA, Google, Texas Instruments, TVA, HEXBUG, Robomatter, Rack Solutions, and Innovation First International. For more information, please visit http://www.vexworlds.com.
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.
VEX Robotics is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities, and robotics teams around the world. The VEX IQ and VEX EDR product lines span elementary, middle, and high schools with accessible, scalable, and affordable robotics solutions. Beyond science and engineering principles, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership, and problem solving among groups. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of students’ abilities as they inspire & prepare the STEM problem-solvers of tomorrow.
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