25 student teams compete at the RECF Engage Robotics Tournament – Hanoi Region, Trưng Vương 2026

On 7–8 November 2026, Trưng Vương Secondary School, together with SEPA and NSSC, hosted the RECF Engage Robotics Tournament – Hanoi Region, Trưng Vương 2026, a regional round of the Vietnam Robotics Championship (VRC) 2026–2027 season and a side event of TECHFEST Vietnam 2026, the National Innovation and Startup Festival. The tournament brought together 25 primary and lower-secondary school teams from Hanoi, Bắc Ninh and Phú Thọ, who played 63 qualification matches on 4 fields and presented their engineering notebooks and interviews to the Judges. The alliance of FCG_San Hô Trắng and Doraemonster won the Tournament Championship, while the Excellence Awards for the Primary and Middle School divisions went to Doraemonster (Archimedes) and TV-GOLDEN GEARS (Trưng Vương Secondary School).

A STEM arena for students from Hanoi and neighbouring provinces

The tournament took place at Trưng Vương Secondary School, 26 Hàng Bài Street, Hoàn Kiếm, Hanoi, under the format of the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF). Teams competed in two divisions: Primary School (U12) and Middle School (U15).

• Scale: 25 teams – 15 Primary and 10 Middle School teams (full list below), about 150 students.
• Participating schools and clubs: Trưng Vương Secondary School, FPT Cầu Giấy School, FPT Bắc Giang School, Nguyễn Tuân School, Trần Duy Hưng Secondary School, Wellspring Hanoi, Vinschool Times City, TERIS, Archimedes, Hoà Bình Primary School (Phú Thọ), Little Engineers Club, and several other clubs and independent teams.
• Operations: more than 60 staff, referees, judges and volunteers from SEPA and Trưng Vương Secondary School.

On the road to TECHFEST Vietnam 2026 and the world stage

The event is an RECF Engage regional round of the Vietnam Robotics Championship (VRC) 2026–2027 season. VRC is launched by the National Startup Support Center (NSSC) – Department of Startups and Technology Enterprises, Ministry of Science and Technology – in partnership with the STEM Education Promotion Alliance (SEPA) within the framework of TECHFEST Vietnam 2026; the regional rounds are side events of TECHFEST. Award-winning teams from Trưng Vương will be honoured at TECHFEST Vietnam 2026.

Developing STEM talent early

The tournament is more than a race on the field. Every team goes through the full cycle of design – build – program – test – improve, documents it in an engineering notebook and presents it to the Judges. Students make the engineering decisions themselves; teachers and parents guide, but do not do the work for them.

In doing so, students turn their knowledge of mathematics, science and computing into concrete solutions while building systems thinking, teamwork, time management and presentation skills. This lays the foundation for identifying and nurturing young science and engineering talent from primary and lower-secondary school.

VRC aims to connect schools with universities, experts, technology companies and the innovation ecosystem, helping prepare a science and technology workforce in the spirit of Politburo Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation.

Two exciting days of competition

• 7 NOVEMBER
  Teams checked in, passed robot inspection and competed in the Solo challenges (driver and autonomous coding); the Judges began reviewing engineering notebooks.
• 8 NOVEMBER
  After the opening ceremony, teams played 63 qualification matches in the alliance format: two randomly paired teams work together to score as many points as possible. In parallel, each team presented its robot design, build and programming process to judging panels using the RECF rubric. The day concluded with finals among the top alliances and an awards ceremony in the afternoon.

Brave (Vinschool Times City & Ngôi Sao Hoàng Mai) collected the most awards, with three: Solo Champion, Tournament Finalist and the Design Award. Both host teams from Trưng Vương also made their mark: TV-GOLDEN GEARS won the Middle School Excellence Award and third place, and TV-ELITE finished as Tournament Finalist and won the Innovate Award.

Judging panel

The judging panel comprised 14 experts, lecturers and teachers from Vietnam and abroad, led by Ms. Đặng Thị Thu Hà (Hanoi – Amsterdam High School for the Gifted) as Judge Advisor. The Judges reviewed engineering notebooks on 7 November and interviewed every team on 8 November using the RECF rubric, as the basis for the Excellence, Design, Innovate, Create, Think, Build, Amaze, Inspire and Judges Awards.

Results

The Organizing Committee presented 18 award categories to 32 team recipients, based on RECF criteria.

Participating teams

25 teams competed in the tournament, listed by division.

Moments from the tournament

From the organizers

About the organizers