Robotics teams gather at Cal Poly for weekend competitions
High school and college students compete in back-to-back tournaments
– More than 60 robotics teams from across California and beyond will compete this weekend at Cal Poly’s Chumash Auditorium during back-to-back robotics tournaments hosted by the Cal Poly Gear Slingers, the Society of Women Engineers, and SLObotics, the San Luis Obispo High School Robotics Club.
The two-day event will feature a high school robotics competition on Saturday and a college-level tournament on Sunday as part of the global VEX Robotics program. The competitions will bring together student engineers, volunteer judges, and spectators for a full weekend of competitive robotics.
Saturday’s event, the 2026 California Central Coast VEX Robotics Competition, will include 50 high school teams competing in head-to-head matches from approximately 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participating schools include San Luis Obispo High School, Templeton High School, Maple High School in Lompoc, and Santa Maria’s Delta High School, Ernest Righetti High School, Pioneer Valley High School, and Santa Maria High School. Students will compete using robots they designed and built for a fast-paced game environment.
Sunday’s event, the Gear Slingers Open 2026, will feature 17 college teams competing from approximately 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., including teams traveling from outside California. The tournament serves as the college-level competition hosted at Cal Poly as part of a season that leads to the VEX U World Championship.
The Cal Poly Gear Slingers will compete alongside visiting universities after completing a 42-1 run during the 2025 season, which ended with a quarterfinals appearance at the VEX U World Championship in Dallas.
Both events will take place at Chumash Auditorium on the Cal Poly campus.
