Robo Rumble returns to the Hub City, featuring local, regional high school robotics teams

The second annual Toyota Tennessee Hub City Robo Rumble is set for Saturday, Oct. 12 at Jackson State Community College (JSCC). This exciting event is free and open to the public.  It is scheduled for 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. with the competition portion taking place from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The VEX Robotics-sanctioned event is the flagship VEX competition for the Hub City, with 48-teams traveling from across the state and region to compete in the skills-based robotics tournament. Toyota Tennessee is serving as the title sponsor.  

Teams will compete in a series of challenges, pushing their student-designed robots to their coding and mechanical limits. Throughout the tournament, teams will play the VEX Robotics High Stakes game on a 12x12 field. This game will test their ability to work together as an engineering team, overcoming design, programming, and building obstacles all while trying to develop a winning game strategy. Each team is also assessed on the quality and durability of their construction, ingenuity, and more, allowing teams to also earn Judged Awards in categories outside of the overall winner. The winners of this tournament will advance to the Tennessee State Championship held at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville in March 2025.  

Through a partnership with West Tennessee PBS, this year’s event will be livestreamed and televised to the community on WLJT Channel 11 so that robotics teams from around the world will be able to see this flagship event in real-time. 

 
“We are excited to bring this event back to Jackson for a second year and showcase the incredible STEM talent we have here in West Tennessee,” said KaBao McCarver, event organizer with Jackson Area Robotics. “We have a lot of sports opportunities for kids in West Tennessee, but our students who are really interested in the STEM field don’t always have an outlet to enjoy what they love. This event continues to show kids that there are exciting things that can be done in STEM right here in West Tennessee and those things can take you places you never imagined while meeting incredible people along the way.” 

Jackson Area Robotics (JAR) is a local Robotics Club comprised of high school students from across West Tennessee. The organization was formed in 2011 and has since competed on the International Stage against teams from around the world. JAR has won various awards while competing internationally and was the 2024 World Quarter Finalist out of the 20,000+ teams that competed the previous season. The Hub City Robo Rumble, established in 2023, is the organization’s flagship local event and is the first-ever event to feature full-metal robotics in Madison County.  

“JMCSS competitive robotics has seen exponential growth this year as the district has tripled the number of schools offering this opportunity,” said Dr. Molly Plyler, STEM & Computer Science Senior Advisor with the Jackson-Madison County Schools. “We are grateful for our partnership with JSCC and JAR that makes this tournament possible. This event will allow JMCSS teams to compete with teams from all over, exposing them to ingenuity and creativity on various levels.” 

Sponsors for this year’s event include Toyota Tennessee as the title sponsor of the event, with supporting sponsors including Leaders Credit Union, Tennessee Valley Robotics, JSCC Advanced Maintenance Technician Co-op, Jackson-Madison County School System, The Greater Jackson Chamber, H&M Company, Inc., Toyota Boshoku Tennessee (TBTN), Tennalum, Marco’s Pizza, Pacific Manufacturing, and Twice the Ice. 

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