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Like most Idaho students, Robo-Vandal has a busy schedule. Between classes, a job, and extracurricular activities, Robo-Vandal has to run all over campus before the day is done!

The Vandal Robotics Challenge (V-ROC) consists of four competitive events: Campus Adventure, Sumo Showdown, Balloon Raid, and a bonus round of Vandal Freeze Tag!

Thanks to a generous donation from the Micron Foundation, participating teams will each receive a Parallax robot kit to design and program the University of Idaho's newest high-tech super student. Teams may spend up to $25 on additional modifications to their robot. Robots require a USB connection to a computer. Each team is required to provide its own laptop for use at the competition.

If you would like to create a team, please register online today!

University of Idaho Robotics Competition (2009)

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Vandal Robotics Challenge Background:

In 2008, the Vandal Robotics Challenge [V-ROC] was created by a group of senior engineering students from the University of Idaho as a part of their senior capstone design project. Their objective was to create an opportunity for high school students to learn basic engineering principles through the hands-on application of robotics. The original project was to create an affordable Open Architecture Robot (OAR) kit that could be easily modified using inexpensive parts available at any hardware store. Although their design was not ready for mass production, the OAR team decided to create a competition that would take place during the College of Engineering Design EXPO as an opportunity to expose high schools students to engineering at Idaho.

The OAR team used the Boe-Bot Robot Kit from Parallax Inc., and created three competitions to test the programming and engineering design abilities of high school students from 17 schools from Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

University of Idaho Senior design team, "Team V-Bot," will continue the project started by 2008's O.A.R. Team by creating the rules and competition structure for the Vandal Robotics Challenge. Throughout the spring semester Team V-Bot will provide technical support and mentoring for 32 teams of 5-10 high school students interested in pursuing many aspects of engineering through robotics.