WARSAW — Warsaw Community School Corporation invites the public to attend the sixth annual Warsaw Robotics Vex Exhibition Tournament Friday, May 11. The event will begin at 5 p.m. and will conclude around 9:30 p.m. in the Warsaw Area Career Center gym.

The tournament will feature six teams from Edgewood Middle School, coached by Abbi Richcreek; two teams from Lakeview, coached by Justin Weaver; 14 teams from the WACC, coached by Paul Zakaria; four teams from Washington, coached by David Burden and Patrick Hazelton; and up to 10 teams from outside school systems.

Students participating in the event have been given six weeks to build their Vex robots for the tournament. The challenges students face during the event change each year in conjunction with the theme. This year’s theme is “Splitting the Defense.”

Teams will compete at least six times in qualifying rounds before being ranked. After the qualifying rounds, the top eight teams will pick two alliances and the finals begin. Tournament champions will be determined with two wins in the finals. There will be tournament runners up for the second-place alliance.

Each team involved in the tournament has approximately two to five students involved. Teams work together to demonstrate the design process as they design and build their own robot based on the challenge constraints. Referees inspect these robots before the teams play. Robots that do not pass inspection are unable to participate. If a team does not pass its inspection, the team is able to revise its design until it does pass the rules.

The student registration cost for the event is a donation of canned food items. A community service award will be granted to the team that donates the most items by weight. Donated goods will be given to Combined Community Services. A design award will be also presented to the team that best demonstrates the design process by turning in a engineering notebook.