The Vincennes University Student Recreation Center was buzzing as high school robotics teams competed in a scrimmage, testing their engineering and coding skills on a challenging obstacle course.

The event, hosted by VU’s Center for Applied Robotics and Automation (CARA)  in partnership with FIRST Indiana Robotics, brought teams from six high schools to campus on February 21.

VU CARA Director Kimberly Wright said the scrimmage gives students hands-on experience in a competition setting while strengthening communication, technical knowledge, and teamwork for future STEM careers.

Schools represented were Washington, Princeton, Castle, Evansville North, Mount Vernon and New Tech Institute.

The scrimmage served as both practice and preparation for students ahead of upcoming robotics competitions i