Cedar Hill Prep Robotics Team Takes Home Two Awards at NJ Tournament

Cedar Hill Preparatory School's First Lego League team, Wildcats@CHP, earned two 4th place awards at the Menlo Park Mashup Tournament on May 16, 2026, competing against more than 30 New Jersey teams.

The Somerset school's team took home the Innovation Project Award and the Motivate Award — both presented by a panel of industry expert judges to teams demonstrating outstanding creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving.

Tournament competitors Nyle Thaver, Snehal Nadella, Akhil Kota, Ian Lee, and Ishaan Rajiv represented the team on the floor, while Shivad Desai, Afzaal Mohamed, Yajur Subramaniam, Aiden Betancourt, James Nguyen, Dylan Lee, and Jonathan Li contributed to the team's Innovation Project, titled Archeo Lens — a student-developed solution to a real-world problem connected to this season's UNEARTHED™ theme.

"What stood out about this team was that every stage of this process was completely student-driven," said coach Madhulika Verma. "They didn't just build a robot — they identified a real-world problem, designed a solution, and walked into that tournament ready to defend every decision they made."

The team was coached by Madhulika Verma and Hemlata Iyengar, both Technology Teachers at Cedar Hill Prep.

Cedar Hill Preparatory School is a Preschool to Grade 8 International Baccalaureate Candidate school at 152 Cedar Grove Lane, Somerset, NJ. For more information, visit www.cedarhillprep.com or call 732-356-5400.