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

The next generation of roboticists

I organize the Robolabs tournament calendar: 96 sanctioned VEX events across nine seasons, from regional competitions at our own facility in Dublin to the championships that bring K-12 teams from ten countries onto the UC Berkeley campus and, in 2026, a world championship.

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

The programs

Flagship

One World Robotics Showcase

UC BERKELEY · NOVEMBER 2023 · 120 TEAMS · 1,100+ ATTENDEES

The largest international K-12 robotics tournament in the Bay Area, founded by Arya Sasikumar in 2023 to put academia, competitive robotics and industry in one room for three days. UC Berkeley's Chancellor opened it, the Engineering Dean closed it, Omron's CEO keynoted, and all 120 team spots filled in under twenty minutes.

1,100+ attendees from five countries in 2023, 1,000+ again in 2025

$15,000 raised for the REC Foundation and $5,000 given in fee waivers

Returns to Pauley Ballroom on 21-22 November 2026, 113 teams registered

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu and Arya Sasikumar on stage at the One World Robotics Showcase closing ceremony, UC Berkeley 2023

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

Spectators packed three deep around the competition field at the One World Robotics Showcase, UC Berkeley 2023

A full house in Pauley Ballroom during a One World Robotics Showcase ceremony, UC Berkeley 2023

State Championship

NorCal VEX IQ State Championship

CLARK KERR CAMPUS · MARCH 2025 · 90 TEAMS · ~800 ATTENDEES

Northern California's elementary and middle-school VEX IQ state championship, organized by Arya Sasikumar over two days in the Krutch Theater at UC Berkeley's Clark Kerr Campus. Tesla sponsored it and ran demos outside all day, Engineering Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu spoke, and both ABC7 and NBC Bay Area sent crews.

90 teams from 46 schools across Northern California, close to 800 attendees

32 awards across the elementary and middle-school divisions

Covered by ABC7 and NBC Bay Area, shared by UC Berkeley Engineering

Arya Sasikumar on stage with a microphone at the NorCal VEX IQ State Championship 2025, the Tesla Field and Berkeley Field scoreboard behind him

ARYA SASIKUMAR ON STAGE · TESLA AND BERKELEY FIELDS BEHIND

Hundreds of competitors and families filling the hall at the NorCal VEX IQ State Championship, UC Berkeley 2025

Teams working on their robots in the pits at the NorCal VEX IQ State Championship, UC Berkeley 2025

World Championship

VEX AI Robotics World Championship

UC BERKELEY · JUNE 2026 · 51 TEAMS · 21 TROPHIES

The first VEX world championship held under VEX Robotics' partnership with the Global Robotics and Science Foundation, with Arya Sasikumar credited on the ceremony decks as Event Partner. Sasikumar delivered the opening and closing presentations, and the championship has grown from about 11 teams at its first edition to 51.

51 fully autonomous teams from five countries and 40 organizations

21 trophies across 14 award categories

Guests: Bob Mimlitch III, Vince Bertram, Ben Kolligs, Dean Mark Asta

Arya Sasikumar at the podium at the VEX AI Robotics World Championship, UC Berkeley 2026

ARYA SASIKUMAR AT THE PODIUM · PAULEY BALLROOM, JUNE 2026

Pauley Ballroom set up for the VEX AI Robotics World Championship at UC Berkeley, June 2026, rows of team tables and the competition fields under the match screens

The trophy table at the VEX AI Robotics World Championship, UC Berkeley 2026, 21 trophies across 14 award categories laid out before the closing ceremony

Signature Event

Robolabs Pacific Open

DUBLIN AND MANTECA · 2022-2023 · 141 TEAM ENTRIES · 40 AWARDS

The foundation's own open championship, built so that strong teams from across California, from out of state and from abroad compete in the same hall. It has run since 2021 and carried VEX Signature Event status in 2022 and 2023, with elementary and middle-school divisions each year.

141 team entries across the four Signature divisions of 2022 and 2023

40 awards presented, ten in every division

Sponsored by AEye, whose Chief Scientist was the featured speaker

Arya Sasikumar at the podium during the Robolabs Pacific Open Championship award ceremony with the volunteer crew

AWARD CEREMONY · PACIFIC OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

A crowd three deep around a competition field at the Robolabs Pacific Open Championship in 2023, the referee in the event tee running the match

A packed corridor of practice fields at the Robolabs Pacific Open Championship in 2023, teams driving and tuning robots between matches

Summer Program

VEX AI Summer Program

SUTARDJA DAI HALL · 2024-2026 · AUTONOMY CAMP · AWS SESSION

A camp rather than a tournament: time on the UC Berkeley campus for K-12 competitors to learn the autonomy side of robotics instead of the driving. Robolabs has run it in the Sutardja Dai Hall auditorium for three summers under its Summer Academy brand, with Arya Sasikumar organizing.

Three editions on the Berkeley campus: 2024, 2025 and 2026

Amazon presented AI/ML on AWS to the 2024 cohort on 16 July

Counted as a camp, so it sits outside the foundation's 96 tournaments

Arya Sasikumar on stage with Amazon's Americo Carvalho at the Robolabs VEX AI program, UC Berkeley, July 2024

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

Workshop

AWS Bring Your Kid to Work

AMAZON OFFICES · WORKSHOP SERIES · 175+ CHILDREN · AWS PARTNERSHIP

Robolabs takes the competition format into Amazon's own offices, running Bring Your Kid to Work robotics workshops for employees' children. They build a robot, drive it, take it apart and build it again, with families filling the atrium around the driving floor.

Over 175 children have built and driven a robot through the workshops

Run in partnership with Amazon Web Services at its own offices

One of the foundation's two corporate outreach programs

Families filling the Amazon atrium at the AWS Bring Your Kid to Work robotics workshops run by Robolabs

AMAZON, BRING YOUR KID TO WORK · 175+ CHILDREN

Workshop

Northern California Ri3D

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA · ANNUAL SINCE 2023-24 · 3 DAYS · 1 ROBOT

Robot in 3 Days is the Robolabs Foundation's annual open build. A team designs, builds and drives a full competition robot inside a single weekend, working in the open so that any rookie team can follow the process end to end and copy what works.

Run every season since 2023-24

One competition robot designed, built and driven inside three days

Published as it goes, under the foundation's own T-3 mark

A student assembling a competition robot during Northern California Ri3D, Robot in 3 Days

ROBOT IN 3 DAYS · BUILT IN THE OPEN

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

The Northern California Ri3D build team working on the robot during the three-day build

Corporate

Workday Robotics Immersion

PLEASANTON · ONE DAY · EMPLOYEE FAMILIES · ROBOTICS ON THE GO

Robolabs takes robotics to companies as well as to campuses. The foundation built a robotics sampling immersion for Workday, its Pleasanton neighbour, and ran it at one of the company's own events: the fields, robots and hands-on driving of a tournament, packed up and delivered to a corporate campus.

A one-day format for employees and their families

Part of the foundation's corporate robotics-on-the-go program

One of two corporate programs, alongside the AWS workshops

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