GENIUS Robotics teams design and operate a robot for an annual environmental mission. The explicit 2027 game is Habitat Rebuilder: retrieve components from a shared nursery, cross rocky terrain and construct model trees. The current application video is up to three minutes in English and must show the robot’s game capabilities as well as the team’s roles. Teams have one to three students and cannot share a robot; multiple school entries must show substantially different designs. The engineering book contributes to judging. The detailed game text refers to four planting containers in its field description and three in one mission sentence; that count remains inconsistent, so use the official field plan and rules together when preparing.
The official 2027 tentative schedule, application rules and Finalist Guide, linked from the official guides page, were checked November 4, 2026. Finals are June 7–12, 2027 at St. John Fisher University in Rochester. The homepage states applications open December 2026; the tentative schedule adds December 15 without an explicit year beside that opening. An exact opening date remains unconfirmed.
Applications and the USD75 project fee are due March 1, 2027. The homepage gives 9 a.m. US EST, whereas the tentative schedule gives 11:59 p.m. EST; the cutoff time remains inconsistent. For eligible US/EU fair projects, the homepage gives April 16 and the schedule April 15, so that extension date is unresolved. Finalist announcements are scheduled for March 25. Participant registration and full participation payment are due May 5, 2027; May 10 on the homepage concerns trip/travel registration, not participant registration. Optional-trip and travel-information deadlines also differ between the homepage and guide; those services need separate confirmation.
The published participation charge is USD695 per student/chaperone, or USD495 when arranging and paying for separate hotel accommodation. Travel and affiliate charges can be additional. The Finalist Guide says GENIUS does not provide attendance scholarships or fee waivers. The website’s RIT award scholarships concern later university study, depend on admission and published eligibility, and do not pay for attending GENIUS. Future-cycle dates are not verified.