GC student helps SJTU team win VEX U World Skills Championship with double perfect scores
2026/05/13 | Off the Press, Spotlight
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Global College (SJTUGC, abbreviated as GC hereafter) undergraduate student Yiwen Zhou helped the SJTU VEX team achieve a historic victory at the recent 2025–2026 VEX Robotics World Championship held in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The SJTU team claimed the Overall Skills Champion title in the VEX U university division while also earning perfect scores in both the autonomous and driver-controlled skills challenges, becoming the only university team worldwide this season to achieve a double-perfect performance.
Recognized as the world’s largest and most influential robotics competition, the VEX Robotics World Championship attracts top teams from across the globe. The VEX U division is exclusively open to university students aged 18 and above and is regarded as one of the highest-level collegiate robotics competitions, emphasizing robot system integration, engineering innovation, and adaptability under pressure. This year’s VEX U competition brought together more than 120 elite university teams from leading institutions worldwide, including Purdue University, the University of Michigan, Texas A&M University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Chongqing University.
Facing intense international competition, the SJTU VEX team demonstrated exceptional engineering expertise, strategic execution, and teamwork throughout the tournament. The team became the first and only university team in this season’s competition to achieve perfect scores in both skills challenges, securing the world championship title with a dominant performance and further showcasing the strength of Chinese university students in robotics innovation and engineering practice.
Within the team, Yiwen Zhou served as the lead designer for the robot chassis and alignment system, mechanical progress coordinator, and on-site strategist. He was responsible for the design and optimization of the robot chassis and alignment mechanisms to ensure stability and reliability during high-intensity matches while improving scoring efficiency. As the team’s on-site strategist, he also analyzed opponents’ data, developed tactical plans for different matchups, and coordinated closely with the drivers during competitions.
As a GC undergraduate enrolled in 2025, Zhou mainly focuses on mechanical design. He has previously participated in the VEX U Asia Open and won First Prize at the National VEX Robotics Elite Competition.
