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K-12 ROBOTICS COMPETITIONS · 501(C)(3)

The next generation of roboticists

Across 9 years of organizing events

Tournaments run

18,800+

Student competitors

2,904

Teams registered

467

Schools & clubs

States represented

Countries represented

Signature & state championships

World championship

908

Awards presented

100+

Volunteers led

NINE SEASONS, 2018 THROUGH 2027 · MARQUEE EVENTS ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS · COVERED BY ABC7 AND NBC BAY AREA

The programs

Flagship

One World Robotics Showcase

UC BERKELEY · 3 DAYS · 1,100+ ATTENDEES · 120 TEAMS · 5 COUNTRIES

I had spent years competing at events overseas and wanted one here - a championship that put academia, competitive robotics and the wider STEM industry in the same room for three days. Six months of work later we had the Chancellor opening it, the Engineering Dean closing it, Omron's CEO keynoting and a 25-group industry Expo on the terrace. All 120 spots filled in under twenty minutes.

1,100+ people through the doors in 2023, 1,000+ again in 2025

120 teams from 74 schools and clubs, five countries

$15,000 raised and $5,000 in fee waivers, so cost was not what kept a team home

Returns 21-22 November 2026 - 113 teams already registered

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu and Arya Sasikumar on stage at the One World closing ceremony

CLOSING CEREMONY WITH DEAN TSU-JAE KING LIU · THE PHOTO UC BERKELEY ENGINEERING RAN

State Championship

NorCal VEX IQ State Championship

CLARK KERR CAMPUS · 8-9 MARCH 2025 · CLOSE TO 800 ATTENDEES

Two days of elementary and middle-school state championships in the Krutch Theater. Tesla sponsored it and parked a Cybertruck and a Model X outside with staff running demos all day. Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu and Prof. Ala Moradian spoke. Both ABC7 and NBC Bay Area sent crews.

90 teams from 46 schools, 32 awards across two divisions

Tesla on site: Cybertruck, Model X and hands-on demos

Covered by ABC7 and NBC Bay Area

Arya Sasikumar on stage with a microphone at the NorCal state championship, the Tesla Field and Berkeley Field scoreboard behind him

ON STAGE AT THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP · TESLA AND BERKELEY FIELDS BEHIND

World Championship

VEX AI Robotics World Championship

UC BERKELEY · JUNE 2026 · 51 AUTONOMOUS TEAMS · 5 COUNTRIES

The first VEX world championship held under VEX Robotics' partnership with the Global Robotics & Science Foundation, and I was its event partner. Every robot on the field ran fully autonomously. I gave both the opening and the closing ceremony presentations.

51 fully autonomous teams from five countries

21 trophies across 14 award categories

Tesla ran test drives outside Pauley Ballroom

Fully autonomous robots on the field at the VEX AI World Championship, spectators around the perimeter

PAULEY BALLROOM · JUNE 2026

Signature Event

Robolabs Pacific Open

ANNUAL · 141 TEAM ENTRIES ACROSS 2022 AND 2023

Our open championship, for teams from across California, out of state and overseas. Sponsored by AEye, the Dublin LiDAR company - Dr. Allan Steinhardt, their Chief Scientist and former Chief Scientist at both DARPA and Booz Allen Hamilton, was the featured speaker.

141 team entries across the 2022 and 2023 editions

Elementary and middle-school divisions, 20 awards

VEX AI Summer Program

SUTARDJA DAI HALL · 2024, 2025, 2026

A summer program on the Berkeley campus teaching autonomous robotics to students who have never written a line of vision code. Amazon's Head of AI/ML GTM came to present on running machine learning in production. Three editions so far.

Three editions: 2024, 2025 and 2026

Computer vision, autonomous strategy and teleoperation

A presentation on AI and machine learning to the Robolabs VEX AI program at UC Berkeley, with VEX robots on stage

AI/ML SESSION FOR THE VEX AI PROGRAM · UC BERKELEY

Workshop

AWS Bring Your Kid to Work

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Robotics workshops run with Amazon Web Services for employees' families - build a robot, drive it, take it apart, do it again.

175+ children built and drove a robot for the first time

AMAZON, BRING YOUR KID TO WORK · 175+ CHILDREN

Workshop

Northern California Ri3D

ROBOT IN 3 DAYS · ANNUAL SINCE 2023-24

A team designs, builds and drives a full competition robot inside a single weekend, in the open, so a rookie team anywhere can follow the process end to end and copy what works.

Run every season since 2023-24

A student in a Robolabs Ri3D shirt reading Robot in 3 Days working on a competition robot

ROBOT IN 3 DAYS · BUILT IN THE OPEN

Corporate

Workday Robotics Immersion

PLEASANTON

A robotics sampling experience built for Workday and run at one of their company events - hands-on driving for employees and their families.

Built and run for Workday at their Pleasanton campus

Hands on

driving, for employees and their families

1 / 8

Growth over the years

Tournaments run per seasonScheduled, not yet run

2018
–2019

21 teams

2019
–2020

70 teams

2020
–2021

174 teams

2021
–2022

295 teams

2022
–2023

410 teams

2023
–2024

538 teams

2024
–2025

579 teams

2025
–2026

758 teams

2026
–2027

59 teams

What it looks like

Students competing

Qualification and elimination matches, the pits, and the teams driving.

Two students assembling a competition robot during the Robot in 3 Days build

Ri3D, hour by hour

A student fitting a lift assembly onto the Ri3D robot

Building the lift

A child in costume driving a VEX IQ robot at the Amazon workshop

First time driving

Two competition robots on the One World field with referees and the crowd behind

On the field, One World 2023

Off the field

Students celebrating together after a match at One World

After the match

Teams driving robots on practice fields under the Clark Kerr arcade

Practice fields under the arcade

A live match at the state championship with three referees scoring on tablets

Three refs, one match

Two alliances competing on the field with the crowd behind

Two alliances up, the hall behind

Motion-blurred robots during a qualification match with referees lined up behind

Driver control, qualifications

Spectators pressed against the field rail watching a match

Pressed to the rail

Qualification match

Robot on the field

Close-up of hands adjusting a robot's intake mechanism

Last-minute fix

Team members in Girls Who Code Make Waves shirts watching a match at the field

Girls Who Code Make Waves, field-side

Alliance in green

The One World 2025 final match in the Pauley Ballroom in front of a large crowd

One World 2025 final, Push Back

VEX IQ Rapid Relay match in progress on the competition field

Rapid Relay on the field

Twenty-three seconds left

Head referee watching a match from the field edge

At the field edge

Teams and volunteers working in the pits at the Clark Kerr Campus

The pits at Clark Kerr

A team in red shirts loading a ball onto their robot at the field

A team on the field

Packed Krutch Theater with 2025 championship banners on the balcony

NorCal VEX IQ Championship, Krutch Theater

Spectators standing to watch a match at the NorCal championship

Watching a match

Industry on the floor

Twenty-five academic and industry groups exhibiting, open to every family at the event.

Amazon, Bring Your Kid to Work

Families filling the Amazon atrium at the Bring Your Kid to Work event

175+ children through the door

One World map graphic showing the competing countries: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Panama and Kazakhstan

Where the teams flew in from

Tesla vehicles on site at the NorCal state championship: Model Y, Cybertruck interior, Tesla sign and Model X

Tesla on site all day

Omron Robotics

Saildrone

United States Patent and Trademark Office booth at the Expo

USPTO

DroneDeploy

Gray Matter Robotics

US Marine Corps EOD team demonstrating a tracked robot at the Expo

Marine Corps EOD, with the robot

Squishy Robotics

Club for the Future booth inviting students to send postcards to space

Club for the Future, Blue Origin's foundation

Berkeley M.E.T.

Society of Women Engineers

The One World Ecosystem sponsor wall: Berkeley M.E.T., SWE, USPTO, Omron, PayPal, Gray Matter Robotics, STAC, Club for the Future, Caddy Robotics, Saildrone, Squishy Robotics, Formula Electric at Berkeley, SafeBeat, Petoi, Berkeley Formula Racing, US Marine Corps, DroneDeploy, Ava Community Energy and Jacobi Robotics

Everyone who backed it

Robolabs Foundation One World @ UC Berkeley welcome banner in the Pauley Ballroom lobby

One World @ UC Berkeley - the banner at the doors

Ceremonies and guests of honor

Opening and closing addresses, award presentations and the volunteer crew.

Pacific Open champions

Resetting the field between matches

Team check-in

Briefing a team at the field

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu speaking with a microphone beside the podium at the state championship

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu, state championship 2025

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu with a champion team holding their Rapid Relay Teamwork Champion banners

Champions, with the Dean

Wide view of the packed Pauley Ballroom with a speaker at the podium and game elements on the floor

Opening ceremony, Pauley Ballroom

Chancellor Rich Lyons and Omron CEO Olivier Welker seated at the head table before the opening ceremony

Guests of honor before the opening

UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons speaking at the podium

Chancellor Rich Lyons delivering the opening address

Arya Sasikumar seated beside Chancellor Rich Lyons at the head table

At the head table with Chancellor Lyons

Arya Sasikumar speaking into a microphone on stage

At the mic

Arya Sasikumar presenting a glass award to Omron Robotics CEO Olivier Welker

Presenting the Guest of Honor award to Omron's CEO

Arya Sasikumar standing with Olivier Welker, CEO of Omron Robotics

With Olivier Welker, CEO of Omron Robotics - our industry keynote

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu speaking at the podium

Dean King Liu at the podium

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu standing and applauding at the closing ceremony

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu at the closing ceremony

Arya Sasikumar standing with Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu after the closing ceremony

With Dean King Liu after the ceremony

An international team receiving its award on stage

An international team collecting its award

Glass Amaze Award trophy engraved with Omron, VEX and Robolabs Foundation marks

The Amaze Award - Omron, VEX and Robolabs on every trophy

Presentation slide reading Volunteer of the Year Award, Robolabs Volunteers

Volunteer of the Year - the Robolabs volunteer team

The volunteer team lined up on stage at the closing ceremony

The volunteer team on stage: three days of build, run and teardown

Four award presentations at the 2025 NorCal Region Championship with Tesla Field and Berkeley Field signage behind

Award presentations, NorCal 2025 - Tesla Field and Berkeley Field behind

Arya Sasikumar on stage addressing the packed hall at the NorCal championship

Addressing the hall, NorCal 2025

Arya Sasikumar speaking at the podium at the VEX AI World Championship

Opening the AI World Championship

The championship hall seen from above with the audience seated

The hall, AI Worlds 2026

Guests of honor

Industry and academic leaders who have opened, keynoted, judged or presented awards at our events.

Rich Lyons

Chancellor, UC Berkeley

Mark Asta

Dean, UC Berkeley College of Engineering

Tsu-Jae King Liu

Dean, UC Berkeley Engineering · now President, National Academy of Engineering

Olivier Welker

CEO & President, Omron Robotics

Bob Mimlitch

Co-Founder & CTO, VEX Robotics

Roger Peniche

VP of Engineering, Omron Robotics

Americo Carvalho

Head of AI/ML GTM, Amazon

Mufit Ferman

VP of Software Engineering, Omron Robotics

Ala Moradian

ME Professor, UC Berkeley

Vince Bertram

President, Global Robotics & Science Foundation

Ben Kolligs

Senior Research Engineer, Maven Robotics

Allan Steinhardt

Chief Scientist, AEye · ex-DARPA, ex-Booz Allen

Partners & supporters

Organizations that have sponsored, partnered, exhibited or sent speakers to our events.

Connect

Get in touch

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DESIGNED & BUILT IN BERKELEY, CA · PRIVACY-FIRST ANALYTICS