The Southern Educational Robotics Conference was created to support educators as they integrate robotics, coding and hands-on STEM experiences into their classrooms. Hosted by S.C.O.R.E., an outreach center in Auburn University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, SERC reflects Auburn’s land-grant mission to serve educators and students through high-quality outreach and professional development.
The conference provides participants with opportunities to learn from experienced educators, explore robotics platforms commonly used in classrooms and competitions and engage in discussions about best practices for teaching STEM concepts through robotics.
Sessions focus on practical implementation, accessibility and sustainability, ensuring that educators leave with ideas and resources they can immediately apply in their own learning environments.
2025
WELCOMING CHRIS CRAWFORD
The Southern Educational Robotics Conference in 2025 welcomed Chris Crawford as our first higher education keynote speaker and more than 130 educators and administrators to Auburn University’s campus for one day covering a wide range of topics including integrated teaching with robots, virtual robotics and coding, grant opportunities, digital literacy, computer science standards, robotics competitions and research in robotics education.
2024
WELCOMING LESLIE FISHER
The Southern Educational Robotics Conference in 2024 welcomed Leslie Fisher as our keynote speaker and more than 175 educators and administrators to Auburn University’s campus for two days of learning and networking.
2023
EXPLORING ROBOTICS WITHIN A DAY
The Southern Educational Robotics Conference in 2023 shifted to a one-day conference. However, 115 educators still had opportunities to explore educational robotics platforms and how to integrate robotics into their classrooms.
2022
WELCOMING ITS FIRST INDUSTRY KEYNOTE SPEAKER
The Southern Educational Robotics Conference in 2022 welcomed its first industry keynote speaker, Ryan Hittle, who inspired educators by showcasing how robotics is transforming building construction. A total of 179 educators attended this exciting on-campus event.
2021
WELCOMING EDUCATORS BACK
The third Southern Regional VEX Conference in 2021 welcomed educators, administrators and industry leaders back to Auburn’s campus for another successful conference.
2020
GOING VIRTUAL IN THE CLASSROOM AND THE CONFERENCE HALL
Seeing the need for expanding the conference to multiple platforms, SERC 2020 welcomed more than 200 educators and administrators to a virtual conference with dozens of engaging and interactive sessions ranging from fundraising for robotics to writing engineering notebooks. SERC became the only educational robotics conference in the country to shift the focus away from a single platform and welcome participants to learn about more broad topics as well as implementation of multiple specific platforms in the same space.
2019 - 2020
EXPANDING SUPPORT FOR ROBOTICS EDUCATORS
The second Southern Regional VEX Conference expanded its reach to include educators from more than 7 states across the country coming together for workshops, technical sessions and more. This year saw several new topics such as increasing diversity in robotics, designing robotics curriculum, creating robotics leagues and more.
