The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF) sees a future where all students design and innovate as part of a team, experience failure, persevere, and embrace STEM.
These lifelong learners emerge confident in their ability to make the world a better place. As part of that mission, The Aerial Drone Competition offers an Online Challenge to encourage students to continue learning beyond the competition field!
Congratulations to our Mission 2026 Drone Career Readiness Challenge Winners
High School
Middle School
- Automatic qualification to their Aerial Drone Competition Regional Championship, and
- A paid team registration fee for Mission 2027.
Mission 2026 Drone Career Readiness Challenge
Drones are used as a tool in industries around the globe. Entries for this challenge will explore the way professionals in a specific career or company use drones.
Aerial Drone Competition competitors are uniquely positioned to pursue careers that will use drones as a resource and tool. Many of the skills developed—including drone piloting, programming, teamwork, and communication—will directly transfer to future professions.
We want you to explore a possible future career and discover how drones are used in that industry. There are many paths that you can take to becoming a STEM leader. Which will you choose?
Timeline
Submissions are due: February 12, 2026 by 11:59 PM Central Time
Winners announced: March 3, 2026
Requirements
The following outlines the minimum requirements and upload instructions for each Online Challenge.
How are drones used in companies and careers? As drone technology increases, more and more industries are finding ways to use drones in the field. Your submission will use a combination of text and images to identify a specific career or company and explore how drones are used in the tasks of their job.
Things to keep in mind for a successful submission:
- Which career or company did you select and why?
- How are drones used in this career or company?
- What resources did you use to learn about this company and use of drones?
- How has participation in the Aerial Drone Competitions prepared you for a future career?
A PDF submission must meet these minimum requirements in order to be judged.
- Entry is created and produced solely by student team members.
- Format: One PDF file (up to 20MB) that includes all content, including images. A submission created in any other format must be converted or printed to a PDF file for upload. Submissions in other formats will not be reviewed.
- Title Page: Each entry must include a title page that includes:
- Title of submission
- Names of students who participated (using first names only is acceptable)
- Team number
- Location of school/organization
Judging Information
Full Judging Rubric is posted as a PDF at the bottom of this page
Enhanced Judging Information (Up to 5 Points for each Criterion)
- Up to 5 points for a submission that identifies a career or company and describes why it was chosen
- Up to 5 points for a description of how the chosen profession or company utilizes drones, and and an explanation of why and how drone are used
- Up to 5 points for describing how participation in the Aerial Drone Competition prepares students for a future career
- Up to 5 points for clear presentation of findings and organization of content
- Up to 5 points for the quality and readability of the writing, including spelling, grammar, and sentence structure
- Up to 5 points for the quality and thoroughness of images used to document the project
Prizes
One Middle School Team and one High School Team from each U.S./Canada region (Northeast, Southeast, North Central, South Central, and West) will receive:
- Automatic qualification to their Aerial Drone Competition Regional Championship, and
- A paid team registration fee for Mission 2027.
Submission Instructions
All submissions must be approved and submitted by an individual listed as the Primary Coach or Secondary Coach for the Aerial Drone Competition team in RECFevents.org.
Submit your PDF via Google Drive or another accessible platform using this form.
Eligibility
Teams must be part of a registered Aerial Drone Competition team in the US or US Territory for the current season.
Only one entry per team is permitted. However, each team in a multi-team school or club program may submit one entry. For example, teams 123A and 123B could each submit an entry, but team 123A could not submit two entries. Entries must vary in content and presentation to be considered separate entries.
Entries submitted in previous years’ Online Challenges are not eligible for submission this year.
By uploading a submission to an REC Foundation Online Challenge, you agree to follow the Submission Guidelines and certify that you understand the Intellectual Property Rights held by you and the REC Foundation regarding your submission. Please review the Submission Guidelines and Intellectual Property Rights information before uploading your submission.
Submission Guidelines
If you choose to include images or recordings of people in your Online Challenge submission, you are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission and releases from the individuals depicted and must be able to provide copies of those releases to the RECF upon request. If those individuals are minors, permission and releases must be obtained from the subjects’ legal guardians.
The following submissions, and inclusions in submissions, are ineligible:
Photos or videos that violate or infringe upon another person’s rights, including but not limited to copyright and photographs of persons without the necessary consent required by law in your jurisdiction. The RECF reserves the right to require entrants to submit evidence of the subject’s legal consent to be photographed or recorded for the submitted photograph or video, which may include a signed waiver from the subject or the subject’s legal guardian.
Photos or recordings that contain sexually explicit, nude, obscene, violent, or other objectionable or inappropriate content.
Images created by or with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence tools.
Images or recordings that involve putting any individual or animal in danger.
Intellectual Property Rights
Your submissions help the REC Foundation further our mission. You will retain all rights to any material you submit, including ownership if applicable. The REC Foundation will endeavor to credit all submissions with the appropriate team number when used in part or in whole.
By submitting entry for an REC Foundation Online Challenge, you grant the REC Foundation and its related entities such as existing and/or potential sponsors and partners a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive right in perpetuity to use any part of the submission for any purpose, including but not limited to:
Display of all or part of the submission on REC Foundation websites.
Allowing third parties, including but not limited to REC Foundation partners, sponsors, and individuals, to share all or part of the submission on social media.
Use of all or part of the submission on the Internet and in social media in support of the REC Foundation mission.
Use of all or part of the submission in the REC Foundation’s and related entities’ internal and external communications and marketing materials including but not limited to web sites and web publications, fact sheets, fundraising publications, advertising, multimedia, displays, presentation and membership services, annual report, and newsletters.
Providing all or part of the submission to other individuals and organizations for REC Foundation- and related entities’-related use in news stories, social media, newsletters, reports, slide shows, displays, web pages, videos, and the like.