VEX U is a variant of the VEX Robotics Competition for college students. VEX U uses the same gameplay and scoring rules as VRC. However, instead of building a single robot and working together with another team, VEX U teams build two or more complimentary robots, which allows VEX U robots to work together and complement each other's capabilities more closely. In addition, VEX U robots can be built using a much wider array of materials and construction techniques than in VRC, which allows university teams to embrace advanced manufacturing and design robots with more functionality packed into a smaller volume. VEX U also puts a greater emphasis on robot sensing and autonomous operation, with the autonomous period lengthened from 15 seconds to 45 seconds, and the driver-controlled period shortened accordingly to 75 seconds.