The Bell Vertical Robotics Competition is one of the celebrated competitions presented by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation or REC Foundation. Its mission is to increase student interest and involvement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). They do this by engaging students in hands-on, affordable and sustainable robotics engineering programs. By hosting these kinds of competitions, they are able to give students a great avenue to improve and hone their STEM skills. The REC foundation likes to look at new programs that they can bring to peak interests of students that are interested in a larger scale of mobile robotic programs.

Competitions registration opens as early as the months of March to June and competition proper is held each weekend of November. The 2022 season will feature events in Texas, Michigan and Maryland. The season will have a culminating activity and championship activities on 3rd of December 2022 at Bell HQ in Fort Worth, TX.

The pricing per team is $4,000 that includes complete custom-made aerial and ground robotics kit – no additional costs for individual parts, batteries, etc., access to technical resources and support – no prior drone experience needed and competition event registration.

Through these kinds of activities, students get to learn about engineering, assembly of drones, ground vehicles and through this competition, it encourages students to do more and makes these kinds of activities sustainable. It challenges the kids to build drones from the ground up and great problem solving skills are being developed in this particular competition.

The cool thing about this activity is its unique way of handling the competition itself where they have a multi-model aspect to it – from ground vehicles to aerial vehicles and even communication between the two.

This competition is a great way to provide outreach to the students who want to get involved in robotics and STEM activities. This can also be an opportunity for them to meet new friends, create connections and simply just share best practices that can build their STEM skills even more.   

As REC Foundation’s vision writes, they see and believe in a future where lifelong learners emerge confidently even with failures on the side, they still persevere and embrace STEM as part of their future and definitely make this world a better place.

Reference:

https://www.roboticseducation.org/about-us/

https://www.roboticseducation.org/teams/bell-vertical-robotics-competition/