Agenda

Friday September 12th

• 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 13

• 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-1:30PM Lunch (Skills Fields Closed. Campus Tours available)
• 1:30PM-6:00PM Qualifying Rounds
• 6:30PM Venue Closes

Sunday September 14

• 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

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/10C0E4FACAB2BA5FDCF8-56975280-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 [email protected] if you are coming.

Thank you in advance.

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.

Refund and Payment Policies

Due to the high expense for the event, registration fees are non-refundable. The event registration fee must be paid within two weeks of registration or at latest by August 1. If your school or orginization requires a lengthy period to process payment or cut a check, please start this process as soon as your teams have registered. Teams that are added to the event from the waitlist, are required to pay for the event registration fee within 1 week. Teams registering less than two weeks before the registration deadline must pay at the time of registration. Any team that fails to pay for their registration within these guidelines, will be moved to the waitlist and the spot will be opened up to other teams.

Health and Safety Policies

In addition to the RECF release form, parents of each student will be required to complete an extra permission form from NJIT.

Volunteers that are students or staff of NJIT will be required to complete the Minors on Campus Training before volunteering for the event.

Date: 12-Sep-2025 - 14-Sep-2025

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
• THIS LIST WILL BE EXPANDED SOON

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/o480MuR5sX4?si=7yVgxWw9M7hiCa9k

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 on RobotEvents.

Engineering Notebooks must be submitted by 11:59PM EST on August 29, 2025.

Signature Event Early Bird Policy

• All Signature Events will have a specific Early Bird Registration that is independent of all local/regional Early Bird systems.

• Each team starts the season with three (3) opportunities to register during the Signature Event Early-Bird period.

• A Signature Event Early-Bird opportunity is not taken away if a team registers for a tournament hosted by their school or organization (where the team’s coach is the Event Partner).

• If a team registers during the Standard Registration period, a token is not taken away.

• The official Signature Event Early Bird policy can be found in the RECF Library.

• To find out how many Signature Event Early Bird tokens your team(s) have remaining, select the "My Teams" option in RobotEvents:

Admissions & Decisions

Calling all future robotics engineers! Get ready for instant admission decisions at our upcoming event! Want to know if you're accepted on the spot? Juniors and Seniors, make sure you've got these items in order before you arrive in Newark:

• Completed Application: Your application must be fully submitted through the Common Application portal (www.commonapp.org) before the event. Don't leave anything to chance – make sure everything is complete and accurate.
• Official High School Transcript: Submit your official high school transcript at least five days before the event. This allows us to process your application efficiently and get you those instant results you crave!
• All Required Documents: Double-check the admissions requirements on the NJIT website to ensure you have all necessary documents ready to go. Being prepared will make the process smoother and more efficient.

Skills Information

Event Partners are required to provide the appropriate total number of fields based on the event size, but they have the flexibility to adjust the allocation between skills and practice fields as needed. While the overall field count must still meet the minimum requirements outlined, Event Partners can adjust the balance between skills and practice fields according to scheduling, venue space, or the needs of participating teams. It is the Event Partner’s responsibility to ensure that all teams have adequate opportunities for both practice and skills runs throughout the event." - https://kb.roboticseducation.org/hc/en-us/articles/4828090004119-Signature-Event-Guide-for-Event-Partners

Highlander Summit will run the same as last year where there were 3 skills fields and 6 practice fields.

Highlander Summit is an early season event. Last year there was never a skills line more than 2 teams deep at any point during the event. We had only 57% utilization of skills runs last season. There were large stretches of time where skills fields were empty.

We calculate that if every team ran every allocated skills run there would still be over three hours of empty skills fields. Teams that want to run skills and start their runs early should be able to compete all of their skills runs. Teams that wait until the last day to start skills should not expect to get all of their skills runs completed.

Skills will be open for a total of 17 hours and 3 days. Skills will close at the conclusion of the last qualification match whether there is a line or not.