The International Robotics Competition will take place Friday and Saturday at the Magnolia Center on Ellisville Boulevard in Laurel.
The event is free to attend and will begin at 9 a.m. and end at approximately 6 p.m. No open-toed shoes will be allowed.
Thirty-one high schools from the United States and Mexico will compete in the event. Students began designing, building and coding their competitive robots the first weekend of January and, after only a handful of weeks, will now bring them to the competition floor for a chance at the FIRST World Championship in Houston in April.
Mississippi teams scheduled to compete are from Gulfport High School, Warren Central HS, Choctaw Central HS, Picayune HS, St. Patrick Catholic School, Petal HS, West Harrison HS, Our Lady Academy and the BRAINSTEM-Jackson Community team. In all, teams from Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, as well as Mexican teams from Saltillo COA and Pesqueria, will compete.
The event is sponsored by Mississippi Power and NASA. Locally, Jones College and Central Creativity are supporters,
Participants in the competition are eligible for more than $80 million in nationwide scholarships.
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