Students from around the world descend on Louisville, Ky. for an epic robotics tournament!

GREENVILLE, Texas, April 13, 2015 -- The 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship kicks off this week! Presented by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation, this season finale event showcases the largest and fastest growing educational competitive robotics program in the world! On April 15-18, over 15,000 participants from over 27 countries will come together to put their engineering expertise to the test as they seek to be crowned the 2015 VEX Robotics World Champions.

Annually, the REC Foundation presents a series of robotics engineering programs - VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Competition, and VEX U - that engage students from elementary school through college in classrooms and at after-school competitions around the world in hands-on technology challenges that build their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Only the most accomplished teams qualify to participate at VEX Worlds, where students' technological prowess and remarkable ingenuity are on display. These fierce competitors have spent countless hours designing, building, programming and testing their robotics skills at more than 1,000 local, state, and regional competition events. Of the 12,000 teams competing this season, only the top 850 teams will descend on Louisville, Kentucky to strategize and challenge each other with the current 2014-2015 season games: VEX IQ Challenge Highrise and VEX Robotics Competition Skyrise.

"Students' engineering knowledge and programming skills have been put to the test this year with the VEX IQ Challenge and VEX Robotics Competition games that require innovative solutions built to withstand heated competitions," said Jason Morrella, president of the REC Foundation. "It's a true testament to the program's ability to give students the hands-on experience they need now to incite their passion and drive them to become our future technologists, inventors and problem-solvers."

At the close of VEX Worlds 2015 on Saturday, April 18, teams will be invited to Kentucky Kingdom, a stunning amusement park just steps from the venue, for a private party. The party will take place from 6:30pm - 12:00am with all Kentucky Kingdom rides and attractions open, dining options and more!

VEX Worlds is FREE and open to the public with fun activities for the whole family! Spectators are welcome and encouraged to watch matches, attend ceremonies, and visit with teams in the pit area as they strategize and prepare their robots for competition.

Sponsors of the 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship include the Northrop Grumman Foundation, the U.S. Army, Chevron, EMC Corporation, NASA, Microchip, Robotmatter, Texas Instruments, HEXBUG and Innovation First International. In addition, the event is sponsored locally by Ford Motor Corporation, GE, Glowtouch, HelmsBriscoe, Mathworks, Nissan, Toyota Manufacturing of Kentucky, UPS, and the University of Louisville.

Fans can follow the competition and sign up for real-time competition news and results via live webcasts, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram and YouTube updates. Real time tournament results are also available through "VEX via" - an iPhone and Android compatible app, which provides match schedules, rankings and scores. For more information visit RobotEvents.com/championship.

About the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
The REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work. For more information, please visit www.RoboticsEducation.org or for details on upcoming events, please visit www.RobotEvents.com.