About
The Valley of Artistic Ingenuity
Ars Vallis Ingenium is Latin for the art, or craft, of the Valley's ingenuity. We're students from STEAM, the humanities and the social sciences building industry-level solutions together.
Our purpose
Skills you don't get in a classroom.
From our constitution: AVI exists to provide a space where students can develop hands-on and professional skills, and to find opportunities that enrich their academic and professional lives.
Underwater robotics is where we started, but AVI is here to support whatever our members want to build, robotics or otherwise. Teams compete, projects teach, and outreach brings it all back to the Central Valley.
How AVI works
Four ways in.
- 01
Teams
Competition teams run like small companies. Sequoia Marine Solutions builds underwater robots for MATE ROV; a Micromouse team is forming.
- 02
Blank Check Projects
Four-week team builds where new members design and finish something real. How they work
- 03
Workshops
Programming, electronics, CAD and design, every Friday night. The tracks
- 04
Outreach
MESA, community runs, regional competitions and open houses.
Blank Check Projects
Blank check. (Because we're broke.)
Every fall, new members split into teams and get four weeks to design and build a themed, interactive display that combines mechanical motion, embedded electronics, programming and promotion.
- Length
- Four weeks
- Brief
- A themed, interactive display
- Must combine
- Mechanical motion, embedded electronics, programming, promotion
- Each team
- Writes its own timeline and has a technical lead
- Every week
- A progress summary to the technical lead
- At the end
- A presentation and a documentation report
Run in fall 2025 (Oct 10 to Nov 7) and fall 2026 (Oct 16 to Nov 13).
Every major
You and your talents have value here.
Our competitions are scored like real engineering companies: the robot, technical documents, presentations, marketing and safety. Our teams take engineers and programmers, and they also take writers, designers, business majors and people who keep 51 students organized.
- Design & manufacturing
- CAD, 3D printing, machining, chassis, manipulators
- Programming & electronics
- Control software, GUI, PCBs, power, sensors
- Marketing & logistics
- Branding, social, sponsorships, travel, finance
- Safety
- Checklists, JSEA, lab policy, deck management
Nonprofit
A registered 501(c)(3).
Ars Vallis Ingenium Robotics is a public charity recognized by the IRS under section 501(c)(3). Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
- Legal name
- Ars Vallis Ingenium Robotics
- Status
- 501(c)(3) public charity
- Tax ID
- EIN 39-4775163
- Exempt since
- September 2, 2025
- Home
- California State University, Fresno · Lyles College of Engineering