Host Drones in School Races at Your Location!
Become an Event Partner!
Want to have a race in your area? You can host one! All you need to host a race is a gymnasium or similar size indoor space, a few volunteers and the basic race equipment. Event partners set up Drones in School races on the Robot Events website. Event partners keep the registration fees and general admission for all event (minus a $5 per team RobotEvent fee). To become an Event Partner, register for your fee account on RobotEvents.com. Once you have your account setup, email info@dronesinschool.com with the Subject "New Event Partner". In the body of the email include the email address you used to register on RobotEvents.com. Our team will then activate your account to Event Partner status, so you can create events.
How Do Events Work?: Drones in School events can have any or all of the following: Head-to-Head Race, Capture the Flag Race, Portfolio / Display Judging, Design and Engineering Judging, and Marketing Video Judging. When you create your event on the RobotEvents website, you will specify what components will be judged at your race event. For example, if it's early in the season and schools have not yet created new frames, you might have a "race only" event where students are allowed to run their stock frames. In this example, you would award a Head-to-Head and Capture the Flag Champion, but the other award categories would not be given. For a deeper look at the entire process for race operations, please refer to our Race Operations Overview Document.
Event Payments and Process: All Drones in School teams must register as an official team and register for any events at RobotEvents.com. Therefore, Event Partners must post their events at RobotEvents.com. Event Partners incur the cost of hosting their event(s), and most charge a small team registration fee to cover these expenses. It is up to the Event Partner to determine what they need to charge to cover their local costs, but most one-day event fees range from $25-$75 per team. Event Partners set the fee for their event on RobotEvents.com.
Number of Teams: Drones in School races are designed to be held in an afternoon (after school). You can expect a sixteen-team race to take around 3 hours using a double-elimination bracket. If your race is eight teams or less, the bracket will run as a round-robin tournament. An eight-team race will take about 2.5 hours.
Number of Judges: At the beginning of the race you will need 2-3 judges to evaluate the drones and complete the Drone Inspection Sheet for each team. You will need 2-3 judges for "Portfolio and Display" and 2-3 judges for "Design and Engineering". These judges will complete their judging as teams are racing. For the races, you will need two teams of judges. Each judging team should consist of a starter, a timer, and at least two referees. The referees will count laps for the head-to-head race and will score the capture the flag race. You should also assign one person as scorekeeper to tabulate all scores as judges complete their work, so you will be ready to give awards when the last race is completed.
Equipment: The race equipment consists of a gates and flags set for the Head-to-Head race and a set of beacons for the Capture the Flag Race.
Capture the Flag Beacons can be purchased from Drones in School or created on your own with a 3D printer and a menu of parts. For Head-to-Head races, you can purchase a STEM Drone Racing Gate Bundle or design your own track using gates with a minimum opening of 900 cm2.
Additional resources can be found in our Team/Event Partner Resources shared folder.
- Note: RobotEvents.com charges a flat $5 fee per team for event registration. This fee structure will not cover all the costs of site maintenance, enhancements, processing, and accounting, but it does help the REC Foundation continue to make enhancements and provide a better experience for all teams and partners using the site. Event Partners are encouraged to build this cost into their total event fees.
Number of Teams: Drones in School races are designed to be held in an afternoon (after school). You can expect a sixteen-team race to take around 3 hours using a double-elimination bracket. If your race is eight teams or less, the bracket will run as a round-robin tournament. An eight-team race will take about 2.5 hours.
Number of Judges: At the beginning of the race you will need 2-3 judges to evaluate the drones and complete the Drone Inspection Sheet for each team. You will need 2-3 judges for "Portfolio and Display" and 2-3 judges for "Design and Engineering". These judges will complete their judging as teams are racing. For the races, you will need two teams of judges. Each judging team should consist of a starter, a timer, and at least two referees. The referees will count laps for the head-to-head race and will score the capture the flag race. You should also assign one person as scorekeeper to tabulate all scores as judges complete their work, so you will be ready to give awards when the last race is completed.
Equipment: The race equipment consists of a gates and flags set for the Head-to-Head race and a set of beacons for the Capture the Flag Race.
Capture the Flag Beacons can be purchased from Drones in School or created on your own with a 3D printer and a menu of parts. For Head-to-Head races, you can purchase a STEM Drone Racing Gate Bundle or design your own track using gates with a minimum opening of 900 cm2.
Additional resources can be found in our Team/Event Partner Resources shared folder.
