The Whitacre College of Engineering Robotics Program hosts the Get Excited about Robotics (GEAR) annual robotics competition. The program provides an exciting hands-on LEGO robotics challenge for elementary and middle school students at no costs to participating schools. GEAR works to increase interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines. Teams of 3-5 students work together to design, build, program, test, and troubleshoot their robots to solve the year’s challenge that is motivated by real world applications of robotics (automated farming, robotic surgery, unmanned space travel, etc.) Thousands of students have participated in GEAR since its inception over a decade ago.