Lawrence Central High School will host the 2024 Indiana Robotics Invitational, with nearly 60 FIRST Robotics teams from near and far converging at the school for a two-day competition July 12 and 13.
Jeff Smith is the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township’s Kil-A-Bytes coach, and said teams will represent 19 states and three countries — the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Indiana teams participating in the competition are the TechHOUNDS from Carmel, Kil-A-Bytes from McKenzie Center/Lawrence Township, Tiger Dynasty from Fishers High School, TechnoKats from Kokomo, Cyber Blue from Perry Meridian, Digital Goats from Warren Central, Red Alert Robotics from Center Grove, Harrison Boiler Robotics from West Lafayette, CyberTooth from Northwestern and SuPURDUEper Robotics from Purdue Polytechnic.
Smith said that in addition to robots, the invitational has another big attraction.
“Oddly enough, one of the most popular things there — aside from great robots — is the grilled corn,” he said. “Our team — 1024 The Kil-A-Bytes — is in charge of concessions and will go through about 1,000 ears in two days.”
The public is welcome to attend and cheer on their favorite teams.
Doors open for the event at 7:30 a.m. each day, with opening ceremonies at 9:15 a.m. July 12 and 8:15 a.m. July 13 at Lawrence Central High School, 7300 E. 56th St. Enter at the north side of the school — Door 18. Participating teams will compete in qualifying matches both days, with final matches set to start at around 2 p.m. July 13.
