Next week, nearly 100 middle and high school students from Lincoln and St. Charles counties will compete in the 12th annual Robotics Challenge at St. Charles Community College.

Student teams are challenged to build a miniature robot that would function much like a robot in the General Motors Wentzville Assembly Plant. Brian Steber, senior manufacturing engineer at General Motors Wentzville Assembly Plant, wrote the challenge based on a real application used at General Motors.

The event is from  8 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Oct. 27 at St. Charles Community College in Cottleville. The public is invited to view the competition, which will be held both in the auditorium of the Social Sciences Building and in the gym of the College Center Building from 8 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Awards will be presented at 12:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Social Sciences Building.

Competing in this year’s challenge will be 18 teams from the Francis Howell School District, the Winfield School District, the Fort Zumwalt School District, the St. Charles School District, the Orchard Farm School District, the St. Charles County Home Educators, and St. Paul School.

The robotics competition is a collaboration between the Mid Rivers Tech Prep Consortium, the General Motors Wentzville Assembly Plant, the SCC Workforce Development School-Business Programs and the St. Charles County Alliance for Business, Learning, and Education.