The robots are then allowed to compete in arena settings to determine winners during regional contests. Some of these students may go on to help NASA engage in bold new missions of exploration of our Solar System. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz. Following the ceremony, students and their advisors will design and construct remote-control robots in six weeks using identical kits of material.
Advisors are often professional engineers from private industry, government and universities.
Students must ship their robots to a storage company and contestants will not see them again until the regional contests take place. Students will also organize marketing, public relations, fund raising and management groups to compete for the award winning solution. Each year the competition is different, so returning teams always have a new challenge. More than half of these participants will come from disadvantaged schools as defined by the U.S. Department of Education. The Ames region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.