National champions, and a team on the way to the World Final
Our competition record
Robot Penguin, an all-girls team coached at Launchpad Robo Lab, are national champions in RoboSports. In December they compete at the World Robot Olympiad International Final in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where national champion teams from close to 100 countries meet for the world title.
Season by season
Launchpad teams have represented the United States at World Robot Olympiad international competition in 2024, in 2025 and again this season. Every result below is a team result, and each one names the category and the level, because a robotics result means nothing without them.
2026
- Robot Penguin: national champions in RoboSports, competing at the World Robot Olympiad International Final
- A²: RoboSports title, WRO Chicago Open Qualifier 2026
- Five teams represented the United States at the WRO Americas Open Championship in Ontario, California: three in RoboMission Elementary, one in RoboMission Junior, one in RoboSports
- Hosted a sanctioned World Robot Olympiad national qualifier at the University of Illinois Chicago, as a US Engineering League Event Organizer Affiliate
2025
- Robot Penguin: runner up, RoboSports, US Open
- Third place, RoboSports, US Nationals
- Top ten national ranking, RoboMission, US Nationals
- Qualified to represent the United States at the WRO Americas Open in Panama
2024
- Fifth place, RoboMission, US Open
- Sixth place, RoboMission, US Nationals
- Represented the United States at the WRO Americas Open in Puerto Rico
Every team above was coached by the people who build and lead our programs.
We run the competition too
In August 2026 we hosted the WRO Chicago Open Qualifier at the University of Illinois Chicago: a sanctioned World Robot Olympiad national qualifier, run end to end, with a state senator, a Chicago alderman and a UIC engineering department head at the opening ceremony.