High School Students Will Vie for Prizes, Global Stage

New Jersey Institute of Technology will host a national robotics competition next month at its Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center.

About 1,000 high school students from eight states — including New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — and Canada will vie for prizes and the chance to advance to a global competition in May 2026.

The competitors — who’ll come from as far as California, Washington, Texas and Utah — have constructed robots for a game that will be played at NJIT, with referees to ensure that they follow the rules and judges to award prizes.

The judges include engineers and students from NJIT, Seton Hall University and Rutgers University.

This is the second straight year that NJIT has hosted this Vex Robotics V5 signature event in partnership with Robot Revolution of Summit, N.J. — one of about 30 such events in the U.S. NJIT will also offer tours of the campus and a table for high school seniors to see if they qualify for instant admissions.

Including spectators, the university expects a total crowd of 1,200 inside the WEC, home of NJIT Athletics. It’s among the largest gatherings of the year on campus, according to Patrick Thornton, director of robotics at NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering.

WHAT: Highlander Summit, a national robotics competition hosted by New Jersey Institute of Technology in partnership with Robot Revolution

WHO: More than 100 teams of high school students from eight states and Canada. Each team comprises eight to 10 students. So, about 1,000 will compete.

WHEN: Sept. 12-14, with the finals on Sept. 14

WHERE: Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center at NJIT, 323 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark, N.J.

MORE INFORMATION: https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/RE-V5RC-25-9997.html#general-info