6 Robotics Competitions for Middle School Students
If you’re a middle school student interested in robotics, then we hope you’re looking to participate in robotics competitions. Competitions are a great way to experience the real-world applications of a subject while also honing your leadership and project management skills!
In this list, we have detailed 6 robotics competitions for middle school students. Note that while all competitions involve robotics to some extent, some are science fairs where you can pursue a topic involving robotics!
1. FIRST Lego League Robotics Competition
Cost: New FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams can expect to pay approximately $1000 for team registration, the Challenge Set, and a reusable robot kit of parts.
Location: Competitions are held in most states. You can look for teams and events here!
Eligibility:
Students between the ages of 9-14 (4-8th Grade)
2-10 members per team, with 2 adult coaches.
Prize: Scholarships are awarded to the top scorers.
Registration + Submission Deadline: Mid-May is the deadline for registrations, and November and June (of the next year) are the competition/submission dates (based on previous years)
The First LEGO League Challenge allows you to build teams to engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering. Students will engage in building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. As part of the Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem. In 2023-2024, the MASTERPIECE challenge asks students around the world to find innovative ways to communicate art around the globe.
Cost: $2,500 (scholarships available)
Location: Varies; you can find the full list here!
Eligibility:
Open to middle and high school students.
Teams should consist of a minimum of 3 people.
Prize: Awards offered
Registration + Submission Deadline: Not specified; however, applications are open now! The submission date could be March 1, 2024, based on previous years.
Competition Dates: TBA, likely to be in April.
Botball organizes a robotics tournament every year where teams compete against each other to create autonomous robots. In this competition, you first compete in the regional qualifier before proceeding to the national finals. An advantage of participating in this tournament is that Botball provides the necessary resources to develop strategies using AI and embedded systems. To participate, you should brush up on languages such as C, C++, and Java.
3. National Robotics Challenge
Cost: $80 per team/ $15 per robot
Location: Marion, Ohio
Eligibility:
Students in grades 6 through 12. E
Each team has a minimum of 3 members and a max of 6. You can find more information here.
Prize: Awards and Trophies
Registration+Submission Deadline: March 1, 2024.
Competition Dates: April 13 through 15, 2024.
The National Robotics Challenge is one of the longest-established robotics competitions in the United States. It has qualifier tournaments – i.e., tournaments at the local level, from which the top teams go on to participate in the finals. There are 12 competition categories, with the Autonomous Vehicle Challenge posing the most programming complexity and other categories, including Pick and Place Programming, Robot Problem Solving, and more.
For this competition, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with CAD and other programming languages at the very least. Be sure to check each category's specific requirements here!
Cost: No cost
Location: TBA for 2024, but hosted across multiple college campuses across different states in the past that you can find here. Last year was in Denver, Colorado.
Eligibility:
Teams must be made up of students from grades 7 through 12.
Each team must have a minimum of 5 members and a maximum of 12.
Prize: Top teams receive cash prizes, trophies, and other awards.
Registration+Submission Deadline: TBA for 2024, but expect it to be sometime in the fall.
Competition Dates: TBA for 2024, but expect it to be sometime in the fall.
BEST is a robotics competition for middle and high school students. The competition is structured in a team vs team format, with 4 teams participating in a 3-minute match. Teams have to design, build, and program robots to be able to perform a variety of tasks – the theme and challenge changes from year to year, so if you want to participate in this, you should keep an eye out for the announcement as well as look at previous years’ themes.
The competition is divided into two phases – the Hub Competition (at the local level) and the Championship Competition (national). If you plan to try this, it would be useful to focus on practicing and improving your ability to use CAD, and programming languages like Java, Python, or C++.
5. Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC)
Cost: No cost
Location: Varies based on the fair you choose (you can find a list of fairs here!). The finalists have to travel to Washington, D.C.
Eligibility: Open to all middle school students who participate in an affiliated fair.
Prize: There are multiple prizes for winners, including a $500, all-expense paid trip to Washington DC for finalists and a parent/guardian. You will also have the opportunity to win more awards - you can find more information here!
Registration Deadline: TBA
Competition Dates: February 1 - June 14 (tentatively, based on previous years dates).
Final Competition Date: October 18 - November 2 (tentatively, based on previous years dates).
Organized by the Society of Science (the same organization that hosts the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair), JIC is a research competition where you propose a research project to tackle a societal issue.
While not only a robotics competition, this fair gives you the flexibility to choose a topic that involves robotics concepts. For example, Sharanya Chudgar, a finalist, chose to create a solar-tracking recycling robot that has trash-collecting, movable arm recycling bins and moves with motorized wheels. You can find the project descriptions here!
To participate in JIC, you will have to first participate in an affiliated fair near you. If you score within the top 10% of participants, the fair can list you as a Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge nominee!
Cost: No Cost
Location: Virtual
Eligibility:
Must be enrolled in any educational organization.
Open to students who are 7 and above.
Prize: Trophies and certificates.
Registration + Submission Deadline: February - May (tentatively, based on previous years)
Competition dates: September (tentatively, based on previous years)
The Scratch Olympiad is a coding competition centered around Scratch, a visual programming language. In the event, you will have to design a Scratch project based on the themes (you can view the themes for 2023 here!). The themes are segregated by age, and if you are in middle school, you can expect to create projects on themes such as ‘know-all’ and ‘games’.
There are two disciplines for the Scratch Olympiad: Scratch (which involves creative programming on MIT Scratch) and Robbo Scratch, which involves creative programming on RobboScratch using ROBBO mobile robots and ROBBO digital labs.
The competition is held in 2 stages. The first is the national selection stage, which is hosted by the national operators of the selection stage in your respective country. Winners from the national selection stage will qualify for the final stage, where your project will compete with participants from 35 countries!
If you’re interested in working on hands-on projects in the field of AI or ML at the intersection of robotics, consider applying to the Veritas AI programs!
Founded by Harvard graduate students, Veritas AI allows you to learn the fundamentals of computer science and AI. You get a chance to work 1–1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Oxford, and more to write research papers or build unique projects. Last year, we had over 1000 students apply to do AI work with us, and our alums went on to study computer science and AI at top universities. You can find the application form here.
Image Source - FIRST Lego League Robotics Competition Logo