Riihimäki Hosts a Major International Robotics Competition in March

The City of Riihimäki will host a major international robotics competition, the European Open, in the last week of March 2025. Altogether 23 VEX IQ teams and 16 V5 teams from seven different countries will participate in the competition, including teams from outside Europe.

“European teams and organisations have a strong shared vision of developing European robotics competitions. Official competitions have strict quality criteria, which we can easily meet in Riihimäki where we have a wealth of experience in organising competitions. There are of course also many other organisations who would be interested in organising competitions but who struggle to meet the strict quality standards set by the VEX robotics umbrella organisation REC Foundation”, says Reetta Viitanen, Robotics Education Senior Advisor at the City of Riihimäki.

Riihimäki’s keen interest in developing robotics competitions in Europe is also reflected in the fact that, in 2025, Riihimäki will not be sending teams to the VEX Robotics World Championship in the United States. This decision is primarily based on a reassessment of priorities, alongside other reasons.

“The cost of a trip to the World Championship is between 40,000 and 50,000 euros. We can’t invest this amount of funding on activities which only benefit 10–12 students if we can instead offer other activities for a wider range of students. We also can’t partially support any robotics teams’ independent competition trips, as the competition activities organised by the Robotics Campus are part of primary and secondary education in Riihimäki and thus part of our free education”, says Viitanen.

The European Open robotics competition will provide international competition experience to more than 60 young robotics competitors from Riihimäki. In addition to this opportunity, international competition and educational trips are organised with the aid of Erasmus+ funding for basic education, thanks to the City of Riihimäki’s Robotics Campus’ investment in Erasmus activities. Erasmus trips include, among other things, learning about the culture and technology education of the host country.

“The level of Riihimäki’s robotics teams is currently modest compared to the global standard. Our teams are closer to the level of other European teams”, adds Viitanen.

The Robotics Campus also considers that sending teams to the World Championship is not pedagogically justified, as the Championship has experienced instances of cheating.

The European Open competition will be held in the last week of March 2025 in Riihimäki at Hyria Education’s premises on Sakonkatu. The competition is open to the public and will be live streamed on Riihimäki’s YouTube channel.

“More than 150 competitors from several different countries are coming to Riihimäki. We are expecting a great competition where both our competitors and our audience can enjoy an international atmosphere”, says Viitanen.