Nissan donates funds and resources to make BEST robotics happen every year. Mentors also come from Nissan to help teach kids in some schools that participate in BEST robotics. Mentors are professionals who do not get paid for their volunteer work but take time from their day to help future generations of workers. During the day of the competition, they provide many volunteers for the day of the competition to help Lipscomb set up and judge the students based on the volunteer’s professional expertise.


Tennessee Valley Robotics stems from TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA provides electricity, recreation, and environmental stewardship to about 10 million people in the Tennessee Valley region. TN Valley Robotics aims to encourage more engineers. Not only does TN Valley Robotics sponsor BEST Robotics, but they also sponsor six other engineering programs across Tennessee and neighboring states. TN Valley Robotics provides resources to the schools and programs that need it the most. The founder Charley Spencer, with almost 40 years of experience with accounting, sculpts what is required by schools and programs. Spencer knows everything a school is lacking in advance and provides the school with the necessary resources for a program.