Join us in this exciting programme for girls aged 12–16, where teams compete to design and build robots, supported by our world-leading scientists and engineers.

The challenge runs throughout the 2025-26 academic year, with students both visiting King’s in person and being supported at their school by visits from King’s students.

This is an amazing opportunity for participants to gain a wealth of hands-on experience in all aspects of robotics, from electrical engineering and coding to product design and prototyping. By taking part in the programme, participants will build both their competence and their sense of belonging in STEM, and be empowered to develop their creative and technical skills in the framework of team-based design.

Interested in taking part? Schools can register their interest here.

About the programme

Thanks to funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering, we are going to have twelve teams taking part in the competition this year! A school will choose a team of 6-8 girls or non-binary students, from a mix of years 8 to 11. Each team will need the support of a lead teacher, who will help the team throughout the year to develop their design – up to three staff members can be officially part of the team. Each team will also be allocated a King’s student as a mentor to support them throughout the year. They will also have access to an engineering ambassador to help them understand the sector more broadly.

The programme will consist of three main events held at King’s Strand Campus in central London. In between these dates, the team will need to meet to build and develop their robot to excel in the challenges we will set. You should also have around two visits and three video meetings with your King’s mentor at a suitable time for your school.

Kickstart Day - November 2025
An introduction to robotics, including research happening at King’s. Practical workshops covering designing, coding and using the kits provided. Exact date and times TBC.

Hack Day - February 2026
An opportunity to troubleshoot problems with our experts, as well as seeing more real-life robotics examples in King’s engineering and computing labs. Exact date and times TBC.

Challenge Day - April 2026
The competition event, with all teams putting their robots through their paces in front of a team of judges. Exact date and timings TBC.

The challenges

Each team will need to design their robot to complete two different challenges. One will be autonomous, so the robot will need to be coded to achieve the goal on its own. The other will be a live driving challenge, head to head against another team in the challenge arena. Teams will also be required to document the process of designing and developing their robot, and prizes will be awarded for this alongside the performance of your robot on the day.

The challenges are centred on the theme of space exploration – but we won’t reveal more until the Kickstart Day!

Equipment and resources

Lunch will be provided at all three event days at King’s, and we also have bursaries available to contribute towards the cost of cover teachers.

Each team will be provided with a robotics starter kit, with everything they need to begin building, including motors, servos, batteries and controllers. The bodywork of the robots would be built from cardboard and wooden sticks, which are cheap and sustainable, offering rapid prototyping and a very low barrier to entry. The robot will be built around a BBC Micro:bit board, which allows coding in either block-style Scratch or in Python for teams with more experience.

How to apply

If you are a teacher interested in your school competing, we invite you to complete the Expression of Interest form available here. If you are unsure of have any questions, please get in touch as we'd be more than happy to have a chat about the programme and what it involves.

We have twelve spaces for teams to take part. As this is a limited opportunity, if we are over-subscribed, preference will be given to schools that are (in no particular order):

• state-funded
• in a Borough local to King’s (Lambeth, Southwark & Westminster)
• identified by King’s Social Mobility & Widening Participation team as high priority
• mixed gender of entry
• not academically selective

For more information, please contact: nmes-outreach@kcl.ac.uk