Redmond High School is hosting a robotics competition for junior high and high school students Saturday Nov. 20.

Twenty-seven teams from Washington and British Columbia will be competing for awards as well as the chance to qualify for the VEX world championships. In addition to head-to-head competition on the field, each team will also compete and be judged for other awards, including the Community Award (Community Involvement and Support), the Cooperator Award (Teamwork), the Design Award (Engineering Process and Documentation) and the Innovate Award (Innovative Feature/Solution).

Teams will also compete in two special events: the Driving Skills Challenge and the Programming Skills Challenge.

Eight teams competing are local — including an all-female team — from Redmond High School, Redmond Junior High School and the Overlake School. Other nearby schools in Kirkland and Bellevue will also be represented. Many of the teams are part of Exothermics Robotics, a nonprofit organization founded and operated by Rick Tyler (Director, Robotics Education and Competition Foundation) and Bruce Reynolds, and sponsored by The Lake Washington Schools Foundation and Software Resources, Inc. of Redmond.

Opening ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. Qualifying rounds and judging will be running until 2 p.m. Championship rounds begin at 3 p.m. and continue until the final round is complete in the late afternoon. The event is open to the public.

More information about Exothermic Robotics is available at http://www.exothermicrobotics.org, and about VEX Robotics Competitions at www.vexrobotics.com and www.robotevents.com.