The Vaughn College team earned first place for the robotics skills champion category and are currently first in the world in that category with a second place overall finish in the competition.

Flushing, New York (December 4, 2018)—The Vaughn College Robotics Team competed among seven international teams—all from Mexico—in the VEX U Competition in Cancún on Friday, November 23. Vaughn was the only US team that competed. The team used mechanical, electrical and programming skills to build this years robots for the "Turning Point" challenge. The Vaughn College team earned first place for the robotics skills champion category and are currently first in the world in that category with a second place overall finish in the competition.

Vaughns team VCAT finished the qualifying round with a total of eight wins out of nine matches and advanced to the playoff round. In their quarterfinal match, the team won against Universidad Politécnica de Tapachula and also eliminated Universidad Politécnica de Quintana Roo during the semifinal match.
In this challenge, teams compete in 60 second long matches in an effort to score as many points as possible. These matches consist of driving skills matches, which will be entirely driver controlled, and programming skills matches, which are autonomous with limited human interaction. Teams are ranked based on their combined score in the two types of matches. After hard work advancing to the finals, Vaughns team lost to Universidad Tecnológica del Centro de Veracruz (VCAT—13, UTCV2—15) in a close match.
Faculty adviser Dr. Hossein Rahemi, chair of the engineering and technology department and Khalid Mouaouya, engineering and technology associate professor were onsite for the event lending support to the team during their matches.

Founded in 1932, Vaughn College is a private, nonprofit four-year college that enrolls more than 1,500 students in masters, bachelors and associate degree programs in engineering, technology, management and aviation on its main campus in New York City and online. The student-faculty ratio of 15 to 1 ensures a highly personalized learning environment. Ninety-eight percent of Vaughn College graduates are placed in professional positions or choose to continue their education within one year of graduation. They work in 20 countries and all 50 states. The institution serves many first-generation college students and is recognized by the US Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution.