The spotlight will be shining on the St. Denis Centre at St.Clair College in Windsor this weekend.
The sixth annual Windsor-Essex-Great Lakes District FIRST Robotics Competition opens Friday.
The two-day event features more than 1,500 students representing 40 teams from Ontario.
Event Chair Larry Koscielski says students have partnered with professional engineers, programmers, skilled trade workers and entrepreneurs over the past six weeks, to design and build 120-pound robots that compete in the arena.
He calls the event an economic boost for the region.
"We encourage people to take sometime, to go out into the county if they've got some down time and so on," says Koscielski. "I honestly think that's catching on, people are making comments coming back the subsequent years and saying I can't believe how cool place Windsor-Essex is."
He describes the atmosphere inside the St. Denis Centre as electric.
"One part NASCAR, one part Super Bowl and one part rock concert, so it's all good," says Koscielski. "It's really a celebration of the hard work the kids have put in over the last six weeks getting the robots ready."
The Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Paddy Hajdu is scheduled to attend the event on Friday at 2:45pm.
The schedule includes the qualifying matches on Friday, with additional qualifying competitions and the championship rounds on Saturday.
Teams are competing for spots for the provincial and world championships.