The 2013 championships will be held on the Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus on May 17-19, 2013.

Cleveland, OH: Indiana will once again host mayhem in the ring when student-designed robot gladiators collide at the 2013 National Robotics League (NRL) Championships, the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) announced today. The 2013 championships will be held on the Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus on May 17-19, 2013. NTMA created the NRL, a robot combat competition, to help introduce a new generation of Americans to the advanced skills and sophisticated technology that mark manufacturing today. This is the third year in a row that the National Championships will be held in Indianapolis.

This year, NTMA's Robotics League is partnering with The 2013 National SeaPerch Challenge, a student-driven competition featuring sophisticated underwater robots that will face off in the Olympic-sized pool at the IUPUI's Natatorium on May 18. The SeaPerch Program also provides students with the opportunity to learn about robotics, engineering, science, and mathematics - in this case, by building underwater ROVs as part of a school's science and engineering technology curriculum. The program is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

"NTMA is proud of its support for the National Robot League, which partners middle school, high school and post-secondary school students with our local member companies," said Maureen Carruthers, Program Manager at the National Robotics League. "The partnership allows the students to work with businesses as a team to build sophisticated robots designed to do battle with one another. What you see is a destruction-driven face-off of innovative machines that they've designed themselves - providing the students an invaluable opportunity to develop high-tech skills while stirring their interest in becoming part of the future of manufacturing and having a lot of fun in the bargain."

"The NRL initiative is important for the future of our industry," said Steve Tamasi, CEO of Boston Centerless in Woburn, MA. "The effort helps to change outdated perceptions of manufacturing. Instead, students get to see for themselves that our industry is defined by its innovative nature and the cutting-edge technology that we deploy every day. As our industry continues to gain ground in the U.S., we need more and more skilled workers to fill knowledge-based positions, and the process of generating that workforce of the future begins with efforts like these."

For additional information, visit the NRL website at www.gonrl.org. For additional information on NTMA, visit www.ntma.org.

About NTMA

NTMA's over 1,300 member companies design and manufacture special tools, dies, jigs, fixtures, gages, special machines and precision-machined parts. Some firms specialize in experimental research and development work as well as rapid prototyping. Many NTMA members are privately owned small businesses, yet the industry generates sales in excess of $40 billion a year. NTMA's mission is to help members of the U.S. precision custom manufacturing industry achieve business success in a global economy through advocacy, advice, networking, information, programs and services.