Meet The Holmdel Robotux Team

HOLMDEL, NJ — While the Holmdel Robotics Team did not qualify for the Worlds competition this spring, the future still looks bright for Team Robotux.

The team made it to the FTC New Jersey Garden State Rumble Championship on February 26 in West Windsor-Plainsboro, and from there they moved on to the FTC East Super Regionals at the University of Scranton from March 17-19. It was the farthest any team from Holmdel High has ever made it in the fields of design and engineering.

Winners from the Super Regionals then go on to compete in the World’s competition, which includes teams from around the world.

“Overall, the competition was a wonderful experience," said co-president Jessica Kuleshov, a junior at Holmdel High School. "Though we did not qualify for the Worlds competition, we did get to see the toughest in the region and had a chance to network with more teams.”

The origin of Team Robotux dates back to around 2010, when Holmdel student Jesse Stevenson and a few friends began tinkering with robotics in his basement. As other friends and classmates expressed interest in the club, it officially became a neighborhood FTC team, and eventually a formal school club three years ago. Stevenson, now a sophomore at Stevens Institute of Technology, still maintains a connection to the team as his father, Robert Stevenson, is currently a mentor to the students and helps to train and recruit those new to robotics, continuing to truly make it both a school and community effort.

The current team is made up of eight students: Kuleshov, Aditya Dharap, Gabby DeGregorio, Ayan Gupta, Christine Kim, Kevin Franchi, Ben Ling and Myles Cork.

Once every marking period, team members visit Satz middle school to work for a day with Mrs. Christen McCafferty's Technical Education classes on a hands-on project meant to introduce basic concepts of engineering and STEM. This is where they try to recruit new members and hopefully ignite the "STEM spark" with younger students. Go, Holmdel Team Robotux!