15,000 Participants from 24 Countries around the World Unite in Anaheim, Ca. for the Ultimate Competitive Robotics Showdown on April 17-20, 2013

ROCKWALL, Texas--On April 17-20, 2013, more than 15,000 participants comprised of the world's smartest middle school, high school and university students, from 24 countries around the world, will converge at the Anaheim Convention Center to flex their robotic brawn at the VEX Robotics Competition World Championship, presented by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation. More than just an exercise in programming and driving robots, these tech-savvy students turn robotics into an engaging hands-on sport that is riveting to watch.

The 2013 VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) World Championship, which will be held with free admission to the general public, serves as the pinnacle event of the season for the largest and fastest growing educational and competitive robotics program in the world. After dedicating countless hours designing, building, programming and honing their strategy skills at more than 400 local, regional and national VRC events, 700 out of more than 7,300 total VRC teams have earned the right to travel to Anaheim, California where they will form strategic alliances with other teams and challenge their toughest competitors playing the 2012-2013 season game VEX Sack Attack.

"The fact that the REC Foundation has grown the VEX Robotics Competition by 51 percent this past year is testament to the growing demand from today's students who want to engage in robotics competitions, just as we typically see with physical sports," said Jason Morrella, president of the REC Foundation. "We are committed to providing today's youth with more opportunities and increased access to high-quality STEM programs like VEX Robotics, which will best prepare them to become our future innovators and thought leaders, while having fun in the process."

The VEX Robotics Competition provides students and teams worldwide with the perfect storm of applied physics, mathematics, computer programming, digital prototyping, integrated problem solving, teamwork and leadership. Under specific rules and with limited resources, VRC teams learn about time management as they build and program customized robots using the VEX Robotics Design System, which they use to compete in alliances, executing the game VEX Sack Attack, which takes place on a 12'x12' square field. Two alliances - one "red" and one "blue" - compete in matches consisting of an autonomous period followed by driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring sacks and bonus sacks in the colored floor goals, troughs and high goal, and by having the most robots of your color parked at the end of the match.

Partners and sponsors of the 2013 VEX Robotics Competition World Championship include Northrop Grumman Foundation, Autodesk, EMC, NASA, Chevron, GoDaddy.com, Microchip, Texas Instruments and Innovation First International. In addition, VEX Robotics continually reaches more students in the classroom through key partnerships with notable education-based organizations, Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and Technology Students Association (TSA).

Fans can follow the competition and sign up for real-time competition news and results via live webcasts, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Ptch 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 REC 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 on REC Foundation, visit www.roboticseducation.org.

About VEX Robotics

VEX Robotics, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovation First International, is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to middle schools, high schools, colleges and robotics teams around the world. The VEX Robotics Design System, winner of the 2006 Best of Innovations Award at CES, was built from the ground up and designed to be an affordable, accessible and scalable platform used to teach science, technology, engineering and math education worldwide. The VEXpro product line, designed for large scale competitive robots, gives robotics enthusiasts superior performance for less cost. The company has over 250 man years of experience supporting educational robotics programs and extensive engineering resources on two continents dedicated to the VEX Robotics platform. For more information on VEX Robotics, visit www.vexrobotics.com.