Imagine being handed a sheet of plywood and a mystery box filled with materials like PVC pipe, screws, piano wire, a bicycle inner tube, an irrigation valve cover, an aluminum paint grid, a BRAIN (BEST Robotics Advanced Instruction Node programmable platform), and a micro-energy chain system. Now imagine having just eight weeks to engineer a fully functioning robot capable of performing a series of precise tasks… all within a three-minute window.

This is the challenge (and the excitement) of BEST Robotics, a national competition designed for middle and high school students. Our mission is to ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and to inspire the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers, and technology leaders.

Through this hands-on, project-based experience, students engage in the Engineering Design Process, learning to think critically, collaborate effectively, and build creatively. They develop real-world skills in engineering, coding, fabrication, and presentation… skills that are highly sought after in today’s workforce.

Each fall, more than 300 schools and over 5,000 students nationwide participate in BEST Robotics—and those numbers continue to grow every year. The result? Not just robots, but empowered students ready to take on the future of STEM.