General Info
General Info
Welcome to The Highlander Summit at NJIT. An early season Signature Event in the Northeast. The Highlander Summit will be a 2 Day event hosted in the Joel & Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center (WEC) at NJIT in Newark, NJ. The WEC is a state-of-the-art 3,500-seat, NCAA Division 1 sports arena with ammenities like a 56.7 feet by 15.75 feet digital display.
New Jersey Institute of Technology is the state's public polytechnic university and a leader in STEM education, research, economic development, and service. Teams attending The Highlander Summit will have an opportunity to tour the campus of NJIT including the largest maker space in the Northeast corridor.
This event is a partnership between NJIT and Robot Revolution. Started in 2012, Robot Revolution is a private robotics program based in Summit, NJ. Robot Revoution is the event provider for the largest events in NJ and mentors more than 600 students each season.
The Friday evening before day one of the event can be used for early load-in, check-in, inspection, practice, and skills. The main event will be Saturday and Sunday with qualifications and skills, followed by alliance selection and elimination matches on Sunday. Teams are expected to attend the competition on all days, but at a bare minimum must attend Saturday and Sunday to compete.
Please know that unpaid registrations will be given two weeks from the date of registration to arrange payment. This two weeks to pay policy superceeds the the payment deadline of August 1st. Signature events fill up quickly and typically have a long waiting list eager to get registered. After two weeks, unpaid teams will receive notification via email and be moved to the waitlist loosing their reserved spot. We understand that it can take some time to make payment, and some flexibility can be earned with good communication. If you are using a purchase order in events.vex.com, the PO must be in a PO processing state within two weeks of registration. Teams registering less than two weeks before the registration deadline must pay at the time of registration.
This event will advance three (3) teams to the 2027 VEX Robotics World Championship™: Tournament Champions (2) and Excellence Award Winner (1).
Key Dates
- Early Bird Registration Begins: June 5th @12:00PM EDT
- Standard Registration Opens: June 19th @12:00PM EDT
- Final Payment Deadline: Two weeks from the date of registration.
- Merch Pre-Order Deadline: September 12th to have it in your hand before the event
- Team Swap Deadline: September 1st @11:59PM EDT
- Engineering Notebook Deadline: September 4th @11:59PM EDT
- Early Load in and Inspection : September 25th @ 3:00 PM EDT
- Event: September 26th&27th
Highlights from Last Season
2027 VEX Robotics World Championship™
(1) Excellence Award
(2) Tournament Champions
(1) Skills Champion (or equivalent qualifying award based on event criteria)
*World Spot Eligibility:
Signature Events will be awarded VEX Robotics World Championship™ qualification spots if they meet all established criteria set forth by the Global Robotics and Science Foundation. Failure to fully comply with these criteria may result in the event being ineligible to receive World Championship™ spots, regardless of prior expectations or historical precedent.
Volunteers
- Venue
- NJIT Wellness and Events Center
- Address
- 104 Lock Street, Newark, New Jersey 07103, United States
- Dates
- September 25 – 27, 2026
- Grade Level
- High School
- Skills Challenge
- Yes
- Judging Format
- Remote Engineering Notebooks
- Worlds Qualifying Spots
-
- (2) Tournament Champions
- (1) Excellence Award
- (1) Skills Champion
Registration & Logistics
- Event Type
- Open Tournament
- Event Format
- In-Person
- Field Control
- Smart Field Control
- Capacity
- 100
- Spots Open
- 3
- Event Region
- New Jersey
- Max Registrations per Org
- 6
- Priority Registration Opens
- 5-Jun-2026 12:00 EDT
- Standard Registration Opens
- 19-Jun-2026 12:00 EDT
- Registration Deadline
- 4-Sep-2026 23:59 EDT
- Payment Deadline
- 1-Aug-2026 23:59 EDT
- Price
- $500.00
Agenda
Friday September 25th
- Campus tours will be available for participants before venue opens
- 3:00PM Venue Opens
- 3:30PM-7:30PM Team Registration
- 3:30PM-7:30PM Inspection
- 3:30PM-7:30PM Practice Fields Open
- 3:30PM-7:30PM Skills Challenge Open
- 8:00PM Venue Closes
Saturday September 26th
- 7:30AM Venue Opens, Team Registration, Inspection
- 8:00AM-6:30PM Practice Area Open
- 9:00AM Check-in and Inspection Ends
- 9:00AM-9:30AM Oepning Ceremony
- 9:30AM-10:00AM Driver/Coach Meeting
- 10:00AM-12:00PM Qualifying Rounds
- 12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch (Skills Fields Closed. Campus Tours available)
- 1:00PM-6:00PM Qualifying Rounds
- 6:30PM Venue Closes
Sunday September 27th
- 7:30AM Venue Opens
- 8:00AM-2:30PM Practice Area Open
- 8:00AM-12:00PM Qualifying Rounds
- 12:00PM Skills Field Closes (or at the end of the final qualification match, whichever is later)
- 12:00PM-12:30PM Alliance Selection ( Alliance selection could occur earlier)
- 12:30PM-1:30PM Lunch
- 1:30PM-3:00PM Elimination Matches
- 3:00PM-4:00PM Closing Ceremony and Awards
- 5:00PM Venue Closes
Stream
https://www.youtube.com/live/o480MuR5sX4?si=7yVgxWw9M7hiCa9k
Webcast The event will be streaming on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@robotrev or https://robotrevolution.net/tv.html https://www.youtube.com/live/tpSu4gJw6q0?si=OPcfUNojEQkuEFig
Travel Info
Date: 25-Sep-2026 - 27-Sep-2026 NJIT Wellness and Events Center 104 Lock Street Newark, New Jersey 07103 United States Travel Info Flights The best airport to travel into the area is Newark International (EWR). The other New York area airports (JFK and LGA) may add significant travel time or extra ground transportation costs. Parking All passenger vehicles may be parked at the Science and Technology Parking Deck (42 Wilsey St, Newark, NJ 07103). A map has been included in the packet attached. Drop Off/Loading We have bought out parking spots on Warren Street to help facilitate the drop off and loading process for all teams. An NJIT Public Safety officer will be available to help with traffic flow in that area over the three days of competition. Please limit your time in the drop-off area to 15-30 minutes to allow other teams to have their turn in dropping off equipment and members. Please note, we have only reserved Warren Street on the side closest to the Wellness and Event Center. Address for Drop Off/Loading: 173 Warren Street Parking Following equipment drop-off, teams can park their vehicle at the Science and Technology Parking Deck. Address for Parking Deck: 42 Sylvia Jackson Wy Things to do • 10 miles or a short train ride from New York City
Judging Format
Judging Format Judging will be done with Digital Engineering Notebook Submissions and In Person Team Interviews: Team interviews will be conducted in-person at the event. Engineering notebooks will be submitted digitally for evaluation via a link found within the "My Account" panel of the team contact. Engineering Notebooks must be submitted by 11:59PM EST on September 4th, 2026 Please make sure that your summary pages are placed BEFORE your table of contents, as per our Judge Advisor
Volunteer
Volunteer Volunteers are welcome and needed. A limited number of skills fast passes will be made available for teams that provide volunteers. Here is a link to our volunteer form. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4FACAB2BA5FDCF8-63965698-highlander VEXU Teams will be allowed to run skills from the end of alliance selction until the start of elimination matches (approx 1.5 hours from 12:30PM-2:00PM) if and only if their team volunteers during the event. Volunteering during the event means that a significant number of VEXU students are taking a significant number of shifts. VEXU teams will be allowed on the practice fields after the last qualification match on Sunday. Skills runs must be arranged prior to September 6 @11:59PM EDT. Email highlanderinfo@robotrevolution.net if you are coming. Thank you in advance.
Emergency/Bad-Weather Policy
Emergency/Bad Weather Policy In the event of inclement weather, a decision will be made on how the competition will proceed and any changes will be communicated to teams via the main contact email address and/or via live announcment in the venue. This may include a delayed start or early end to matches on a competition day, extending or modifying hours on some days, or removal of matches from the competition schedule in order to complete the event. Every effort will be reasonably made to continue the event as planned.
- Excellence Award (V5)
- Tournament Champions (V5)
- Robot Skills Champion (V5)
- Tournament Finalists (V5)
- Amaze Award (V5)
- Build Award (V5)
- Create Award (V5)
- Design Award (V5)
- Innovate Award (V5)
- Judges Award (V5)
- Sportsmanship Award (V5)
- Think Award (V5)