ROBOTICON 2023 marked our 11th annual youth STEAM Showcase, and this year brought together nearly 80 competitive robotics and drone teams across six different programs. More than 1500 youth joined us throughout October to see competitions at Brooks De Bartolo High School and University Mall, to enjoy competitions, practice and build events, and hundreds of public visitors turned out to see the events and learn about these great STEM learning opportunities.
ROBOTICON featured six different competitions, with 30 hours of livestreamed content. Over 50 volunteers helped run ROBOTICON throughout October, including dozens of University of South Florida College of Education students in Professor Stephanie Arthur’s STEM Integration class, who used the opportunity to explore informal STEM education in action.
Event Results & Media
You can find a full list of award winners across all programs on our Event Results page. Event photos can be found at the ROBOTICON Photo Gallery, with individual albums for each event weekend.
Our ROBOTICON 2023 logo which appeared on our volunteer shirts and event materials, was designed by Vicky Gonzalez, AMRoC Fab Lab Operations Manager and an illustrator by trade. You can get your own shirts and other ROBOTICON 2023 swag in the AMRoC Threadless Shop and help support future events in the process.
Thank You ROBOTICON Sponsors and Community Partners!
ROBOTICON is made possible with the generous support of our Event Sponsors including the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, AMRoC Fab Lab, the City of Temple Terrace, Sensible Micro, PLUGHITZ Corp, the Florida High Tech Corridor, SOFWERX, Bay Area Manufacturers Association, Scoutlier, with in-kind support from RD Management and Soaring City Innovation Partnership and other great community partners.
We enjoyed a special visit from Kettering University at this year’s event, and appreciated Kettering Robotics Center coordinate Kimberly Shumaker and SOFWERX STEM Program Manager Amanda Roark pitching in as volunteer judges during our VRC event.
Special thanks to Ora Tanner of Black Unicorn Education for some great presentations for students on Artificial Intelligence. Participants also learned about opportunities at Kettering University and the University of South Florida, and got a great look at effective brainstorming from SOFWERX.
We’re grateful to all the amazing ROBOTICON sponsors and volunteers who come together to support the event each year. Their support helps participants and the general public see firsthand the power of project-based learning and the “productive struggle” of competitive STEM programs that exercise grit and resilience as students take on the problem-solving challenges they’re presented with each year. The majority of students involved in these programs pursue careers in STEM fields or related businesses, and return as mentors for future generations of students – and as volunteers at ROBOTICON!
You can learn more about the competitive STEM education programs seen at ROBOTICON on our Education page, where you can also learn how to get involved locally.
We’ll see you back at ROBOTICON 2024 in the fall!