VEX Robotics College Challenge is here!

[Jason Morrella]

Hey everyone,

We are proud to announce the pilot season for the VEX Robotics Competition College Challenge. This year there will be one single event - the VRC College Challenge World Championship in Dallas, April 30 - May 2, 2009. The event will be a 24-36 team championship and is open to the first 36 schools that complete registration (teams affiliated with a Post Secondary Education Institution).

Registration and other details are now available at http://robotevents.com/college (http://robotevents.com/event.php?eid=1226). The specific rules for the College Challenge can be found on the VEX Elevation Competition page, where an appendix (F) solely for the College Challenge is now posted along with the rest of the game documentation.

We are very excited about the future of this program and can't wait to see which school takes the crown as the 2009 VEX Robotics College World Champion. See you in Dallas!

[fredliu168]

This looks to be a very promising and cool competition.

If anyone in the University of Waterloo is interested in starting a team, please let me know.

[Karthik]

If anyone in the University of Waterloo is interested in starting a team, please let me know.

Fred,

Check with the UW Robotics Team (http://uwrobotics.uwaterloo.ca/) (UWRT). They enter a wide array of advanced robotics competitions. The VEX Robotics College Challenge might interest a few of their members.

[Dowjonesbotics]

Aww man, i wish we had the money for this. it sounds soooo cool.:(

[EricH]

I've passed on the info to the competition group leaders at my college. We shall see...

[Andrew Bates]

I hope if there is overwhelming interest they expand it to more teams. Sounds like the spots could fill up fast.

[Chuck Glick]

I know I will definitely try to get a Drexel University team started up. Taking the info straight to the head of the engineering department!

[talltree357]

Chuck,
You are hopefully gonna have some Philly competition. I am getting my robotics organization at Temple registered, hopefully tomorrow.

[Jason Morrella]

We've received many inquiries in the last two days and wanted to make sure everyone knew the registration is now open for the College Challenge World Championship at www.robotevents.com/college (http://robotevents.com/event.php?eid=1226).

We're also pleased to announce that the entry fee for the College Challenge World Championship has been reduced from $750 to only $250 per team thanks to two very generous sponsors and supporters (there will be a more detailed announcement about their support in about a week).

We can't wait to see the final list of registered teams participating in this inaugural event!

[lynca]

I think the VEX college competition rules are going to open up the horizon for robotics competitions in general.

http://www.vexrobotics.com/docs/vex-elevation/elevation-appendix-f-vrc-college-challenge.10132008.pdf

Build a team of 2 robots
1 minute autonomous
Use the VEXnet wireless instead of standard 72Mhz
Use 2 VEX controllers on one robot
2 batteries per one controller, scaled up would be 4 batteries with 2 controllers
4 batteries could roughly control 20 motors/servos per robot

Maybe FRC or FTC can take a few ideas from these College VEX rules

[nuggetsyl]

I would love to see a vex pro league. To allow the people not in college build and compete.