Enthusiastic robotics students from eight primary and secondary schools across the region will marshal their talents at the 2012 Central West RoboCup Junior Challenge when the annual robotics competition returns to Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Thursday 14 June. Mr Allen Benter, the coordinator of the competition who is also a PhD student and researcher at the CSU Centre for Research in Complex Systems (CRiCS) in Bathurst, said, “Last year’s event was staged at Charles Sturt University in Orange, and this year we expect about 60 students to build and operate mini robots on the day. University staff have been judges at previous RoboCup events and have provided technical advice to students and their teachers. It’s great to see that students and schools in the region have embraced the concept and the opportunity that the RoboCup offers, as robotics is an important and rapidly developing field.”