College of DuPage Robotics is headed to Florida this week for an international NASA competition that puts community-college engineering talent on one of the field’s biggest student stages.

The Glen Ellyn-based team will compete in the 2026 NASA International Lunabotics Championship, running Oct. 26 through 29 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the Exolith Lab in nearby Oviedo.

COD is one of only two U.S. colleges invited and the only community college in a seven-school field that also includes institutions from the United Kingdom, India and Australia.

That distinction gives students from across DuPage County a rare chance to measure their work against international university teams in a challenge modeled on the practical demands of building on the moon.

The competition asks each team to design and operate a lunar construction robot capable of digging simulated lunar soil, moving it across the course and depositing it to form a protective berm.

Each team receives two 25-minute runs, with scoring based on berm construction, robot weight, energy efficiency, dust tolerance and autonomous operation.

The challenge is about much more than speed.

Teams must balance mechanical strength, mobility, power use and reliability in an environment designed to expose weak points quickly.

COD earned its invitation after placing first in the Lunabotics Construction category during NASA’s May 2026 challenge.

Students returned to the workshop with an opportunity to refine the machine for an even larger test, giving this week’s event the feel of both a championship and a final engineering exam.

The robot uses a centered bucket system to collect material and a vibration motor to help settle the simulated lunar soil as it builds the berm.

Those choices reflect the kind of practical problem-solving that makes this story especially meaningful locally.

COD students are not simply demonstrating a classroom project; they are showing that hands-on programs at a community college can compete alongside established engineering institutions from around the world.

The team’s first scheduled run is at 2 p.m. Central time Wednesday, Oct. 28, followed by a second run at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29.

Both rounds are expected to stream through the Florida Space Institute’s YouTube channel, giving local families, classmates and supporters a way to follow the competition from home.

Results will also offer a useful measure of how the robot performs under time pressure and where the students’ design stands against a global field.

For the College of DuPage community, the invitation already marks a notable achievement and builds on the team’s first-place finish earlier this year.

A strong showing in Florida could bring even more attention to local technical education, student teamwork and the growing role of community colleges in high-level aerospace challenges.

Win or lose, COD’s presence at the event sends a clear message: ambitious engineering work is happening close to home, and local students have earned a place on an international stage.