Robotics & Autonomous Systems Scholarships (2026): 28 Verified Awards for FIRST, VEX, AI, and Engineering Students
January
1) Wentworth FIRST Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is one of the cleaner robotics-to-college pipelines on the list. If a student has been consistently involved in FIRST through high school and wants an engineering-heavy school that clearly rewards that experience, this is a strong fit. It is especially good for students who want a scholarship that recognizes real build-team work instead of only GPA and generic academic performance.
Amount: $10,000 per year, renewable for four years
Deadline: January 1 (must be applied to and accepted by Wentworth’s Early Action Round 2 deadline)
Apply/info: Official Wentworth scholarship page
2) Wentworth VEX Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: VEX students often get overlooked when scholarship roundups obsess over FIRST only. Wentworth gives VEX participants a direct, named scholarship path with serious renewable value, which makes it one of the better verified options for students whose robotics résumé is built around VEX competition, design iteration, and coding.
Amount: $10,000 per year, renewable for four years
Deadline: January 1 (must be applied to and accepted by Wentworth’s Early Action Round 2 deadline)
Apply/info: Official Wentworth scholarship page
3) AIAA Roger W. Kahn Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This one is a strong angle for robotics students whose interests lean toward autonomy in aerospace, controls, flight systems, drones, or space robotics. It is also attractive because it is aimed at high school seniors and adds mentorship, not just money, which makes it more career-shaped than a lot of one-off scholarships.
Amount: Up to four $10,000 scholarships
Deadline: January 7 at 11:59 p.m. ET
Apply/info: Official AIAA Roger W. Kahn Scholarship page
4) SWE Wisconsin Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is not robotics-branded, but it is a real fit for women pursuing engineering pathways that feed robotics and autonomy, especially mechanical, electrical, systems, and manufacturing tracks. It also earns points for having a clearly posted deadline, a published minimum value, and a direct application link instead of vague scholarship marketing copy.
Amount: Minimum $1,000, depending on fundraising
Deadline: January 31, 2026
Apply/info: Official SWE Wisconsin scholarship page
February
5) Harvey Mudd FIRST Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Harvey Mudd is one of the rare schools that gives FIRST participation a named merit award with a published scholarship value. For students aiming at elite engineering and math-heavy programs, this is a prestige-plus-fit option that can carry real value while still rewarding hands-on robotics experience.
Amount: $27,183
Deadline: February 1 (merit scholarship deadline)
Apply/info: Official Harvey Mudd FIRST Robotics Scholarship page
6) Rose-Hulman FIRST Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Rose-Hulman has a very direct formula here: FIRST experience, strong engineering interest, and a named scholarship with real renewable value. That makes it great for students who want a serious engineering campus where their competition background is treated as a meaningful indicator of fit, not just an extracurricular footnote.
Amount: $10,000, renewable up to $40,000 over four years
Deadline: February 1
Apply/info: Official Rose-Hulman scholarships page
7) Rose-Hulman VEX Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: VEX students do not always get scholarship options with the same visibility as FIRST students, so this is a valuable page to keep in a niche robotics guide. It is especially strong for students who want a pure engineering environment and need a scholarship that directly validates years of robotics competition work.
Amount: $10,000, renewable up to $40,000 over four years
Deadline: February 1
Apply/info: Official Rose-Hulman scholarships page
8) Michigan Tech FIRST Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Michigan Tech is unusually good here because it explicitly includes FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, and VEX Robotics students. That wider eligibility makes it one of the best “bridge” scholarships for robotics students whose experience may not fit just one competition brand.
Amount: $1,500 or $4,000 per year; some awards total $16,000 over four years
Deadline: February 1
Apply/info: Official Michigan Tech FIRST Scholarship page
9) Drexel FIRST Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Drexel’s scholarship works well for students who want robotics experience to translate into co-op-heavy engineering education. The yearly value is strong, and because Drexel emphasizes applied learning, this one fits students who care about robotics careers, not just classroom theory.
Amount: $8,000 per year
Deadline: February 1 for Early Action and Regular Decision applicants; November 25 for Early Decision
Apply/info: Official Drexel undergraduate scholarships page
10) Kettering University Robotics and Drone Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is one of the most directly on-topic scholarships in the whole guide. Kettering explicitly targets robotics and drone competitors or mentors and ties that experience to a school known for applied engineering and co-op pathways, which is exactly the kind of profile that makes sense for autonomous systems students.
Amount: Up to $5,000 per year, renewable
Deadline: February 15 at 11:59 p.m.
Apply/info: Official Kettering Robotics Scholarships page
11) AIAA and Club for the Future’s Resilient Student Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is a great fit for students whose robotics story overlaps with aerospace, autonomy, drones, controls, or space-tech ambitions. It also stands out because it is designed to support students who have faced obstacles, so it is not just a score-chasing scholarship.
Amount: One $10,000 scholarship
Deadline: February 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET
Apply/info: Official AIAA Club for the Future Scholarship page
12) WPI FIRST Design Innovation Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is one of the best true robotics scholarships in the country. It rewards actual robot design thinking, gives one nominee from each team a shot, and has both a massive full-tuition prize and meaningful runner-up awards, which makes it far more usable than a winner-take-all vanity scholarship.
Amount: Full tuition for four years, valued at about $220,000; plus three $40,000 runner-up scholarships
Deadline: February 23, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. EST; mentor nomination due March 2
Apply/info: Official WPI Robotics Scholarships page
13) WPI FIRST Community Scholarship
Why It Slaps: A lot of robotics students contribute more through leadership, culture, outreach, and team values than through one mechanical subsystem alone. This scholarship is strong because it rewards that kind of real robotics-community impact with full-tuition value, not just a token leadership badge.
Amount: Full tuition for four years, valued at about $220,000
Deadline: February 23, 2026; mentor nomination due March 2
Apply/info: Official WPI Robotics Scholarships page
14) WPI VEX / RECF Drone Program Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is another elite-fit scholarship because it directly names VEX V5 Robotics Competition and RECF Drone alumni. For students interested in autonomous systems, that matters: drone strategy, coding, controls, and systems integration line up extremely well with what colleges and employers actually want to see.
Amount: One $80,000 grand prize scholarship plus two $40,000 runner-up scholarships
Deadline: February 23, 2026; mentor nomination due March 2
Apply/info: Official WPI Robotics Scholarships page
March
15) Mercer University FIRST Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Mercer’s award is smaller than some others here, but it is still worth publishing because it is a clean named scholarship for FIRST participants pursuing engineering. That makes it a strong stackable option for students who want every robotics-related institutional award they can find instead of chasing only giant national awards.
Amount: $1,000, renewable
Deadline: Must be admitted by March 1 of senior year; separate essay required
Apply/info: Official Mercer FIRST Robotics Scholarship page
16) University of Hartford FIRST Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This one deserves attention because it stacks a named FIRST scholarship on top of qualified university merit aid. That combination can make a modest-looking $2,000 award much more useful in the real package a student sees, especially for robotics students who are comparing multiple engineering schools.
Amount: $2,000, plus qualified university merit scholarships
Deadline: March 1 university admission deadline; March 15 supplemental application deadline
Apply/info: Official University of Hartford scholarship page
17) ASME INSPIRE / Charles W.E. Clarke Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Mechanical engineering is still one of the most common gateways into robotics, mechatronics, automation, and hardware-heavy autonomy work. This ASME scholarship is valuable because it is specific, published, and tied to students entering mechanical engineering or very closely related study rather than a vague “STEM” bucket.
Amount: $2,000
Deadline: March 15
Apply/info: Official ASME high school scholarships page
April
18) Northeastern NU-FIRST Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is a true headline scholarship because it is full tuition for up to eight semesters. It is especially strong for robotics students who want a large engineering ecosystem and whose FIRST experience is a central part of their college application story.
Amount: Full tuition for up to eight semesters
Deadline: April 1, 2026 for the NU-FIRST application; university application deadline January 1
Apply/info: Official Northeastern NU-FIRST page
19) Tri-County WIB Artificial Intelligence / Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is one of the most directly relevant scholarships in the guide because it explicitly names AI and robotics fields, and it is open to students attending trade schools, community colleges, colleges, or universities. That broader education-path coverage makes it useful for readers who are entering automation, mechatronics, robotics tech, or applied AI pipelines instead of only four-year engineering programs.
Amount: $2,000
Deadline: April 30, 2026 at 4 p.m.
Apply/info: Official Tri-County WIB scholarship page
20) AISES Polaris Academic Scholarship
Why It Slaps: Polaris is a high-fit sponsor for students interested in mobility systems, manufacturing, digital technology, and mechanical engineering, all of which connect naturally to autonomous systems careers. For Indigenous students in robotics-adjacent majors, this is one of the better-targeted scholarships on the page.
Amount: $5,000
Deadline: April 30
Apply/info: Official AISES scholarships page
21) AISES Indigenous Peoples Education Fund Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is broader than “robotics,” but it is still worth including because it supports first-time freshmen entering any STEM field, which can absolutely include robotics, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or AI-related programs. It is a strong on-ramp scholarship for Indigenous students early in the pipeline.
Amount: $5,000
Deadline: April 30
Apply/info: Official AISES scholarships page
22) AISES ARDC Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This one is a sleeper fit for robotics students because it names computer engineering, mechanical engineering, information technology, communications, and related fields. If a student’s autonomous-systems path includes embedded systems, wireless comms, sensor networks, or control-system data flow, this becomes more relevant than the title may first suggest.
Amount: $5,000
Deadline: April 30
Apply/info: Official AISES scholarships page
23) AISES A.T. Anderson Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is one of the most flexible scholarships in the guide because it covers any STEM field and supports both undergraduate and graduate students. That flexibility makes it especially useful for robotics students whose exact degree title might be mechanical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, mechatronics, or something equally adjacent.
Amount: $1,000 for undergraduate students; $2,000 for graduate students
Deadline: April 30
Apply/info: Official AISES scholarships page
24) AISES Stellantis MCAP Scholarship
Why It Slaps: If the goal is autonomous mobility, connected vehicles, electrification, or automotive systems, this is one of the strongest niche-fit awards on the page. Stellantis explicitly ties the scholarship to sustainable mobility, including autonomous and connected vehicles, which makes it unusually aligned with real autonomous-systems career paths.
Amount: $6,500 annually for up to two years, plus a $7,000 mechanical-tools allotment
Deadline: April 30
Apply/info: Official AISES scholarships page
May
25) AFCEA STEM Majors Scholarships
Why It Slaps: This is not robotics-only, but it is still a high-value addition because robotics students often major in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, cybersecurity, or related technical programs that fall well inside AFCEA’s STEM umbrella. One application also opens multiple scholarship paths, which improves time efficiency for applicants.
Amount: $2,500 STEM Major Scholarship; $5,000 Cyber Security Scholarship; $2,500 Student Member Scholarship
Deadline: May 1, 2026
Apply/info: Official AFCEA STEM Majors Scholarships page
26) Rensselaer FIRST Robotics Scholarship
Why It Slaps: This is a major-value award for students who have serious FIRST credentials and are planning well ahead. The catch is that it is aimed at juniors, not seniors, but that is also why it is valuable for a content page like this: it gives younger students time to position themselves before application season gets crowded.
Amount: Minimum $12,500 per year for four years, minimum total value $50,000; up to ten awards
Deadline: May 15 of junior year in high school
Apply/info: Official RPI FIRST Robotics Scholarship form
June
27) NYU Tandon FIRST Scholarship
Why It Slaps: NYU Tandon is a strong urban engineering brand, and this scholarship gives FIRST students a direct scholarship connection there instead of making them rely only on general merit aid. It is especially useful for students whose robotics work overlaps with software, urban systems, control systems, smart infrastructure, or interdisciplinary engineering.
Amount: One-time $2,000 scholarship
Deadline: June 1
Apply/info: Official NYU Tandon undergraduate financial aid and scholarships page
28) NYU Tandon WRO Alumni Scholarship
Why It Slaps: World Robot Olympiad participants do not always see themselves reflected in U.S.-focused scholarship lists, so this is a smart inclusion. It gives international-style robotics competition experience a direct payoff and is one of the few verified scholarships here that explicitly names WRO alumni.
Amount: Up to $2,000, one-time
Deadline: June 1
Apply/info: Official NYU Tandon undergraduate financial aid and scholarships page
FAQs
Are there really enough pure robotics scholarships to build a whole list?
Not many. That is why the strongest version of this page includes three buckets: direct robotics competition scholarships, AI/automation/mechatronics scholarships, and high-fit engineering scholarships that clearly match robotics and autonomous systems pathways. That is the honest way to serve readers without padding the page with weak generic listings.
Which majors usually count for robotics and autonomous systems students?
The strongest recurring fits are mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, aerospace engineering, software development, manufacturing, supply chain, mechatronics, automation, and other related technical programs. Several of the official pages above explicitly name those majors or closely related pathways.
Do FIRST, VEX, and drone competitions actually help with scholarships?
Yes. In this list alone, multiple schools and organizations explicitly reward participation in FIRST, VEX, or drone programs, including WPI, Wentworth, Rose-Hulman, Michigan Tech, Mercer, Hartford, Northeastern, Kettering, and NYU Tandon.
Can these scholarships be stacked with other merit aid?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. University of Hartford says its FIRST scholarship comes along with qualified university merit scholarships, while Northeastern says the NU-FIRST award would replace previously offered merit scholarships. Students should never assume stackability without checking the institution’s own page or aid office.
What should a student do if a deadline already passed?
Keep the scholarship on a tracking sheet anyway. Many of these programs recur annually, and the biggest mistake students make is discovering them after the cycle closes instead of building a calendar months early. The January and February awards in this niche are especially important to track ahead of time.
