Millburn and Chatham Students Break the State Record in Robotics Competition

January 30th, 2017

By JerseySTEM

On Sunday, January 29th, 36 teams competed at Hightstown High School, vying for the last six spots of the First Tech Challenge (FTC) NJ Championship event Garden State Rumble. Not many expected that at the last qualifier of the season a state record could be attained, as many of the best teams had filtered out during earlier qualifiers. However, with 21 successful center vortex shots by team WeByte and their partner, the LANbros, and the 115 autonomous mode points that they accumulated, the WeByte alliance managed to score the 245 points required to beat the previous state high score by 30 points.

Composed of Chatham High School 10th graders Joshua Smith and Edward Lam, Millburn High School 9th graders Somil Agarwal and Daniel Gerdes, Millburn Middle School 8th grader William Qin, and Chatham Middle School 8th grader Ashley Smith, WeByte has made it to States two years in a row, however this is their first record. The achievement didn’t come easy though, as the head Coach Mike Smith said “Our first two matches of the day were far from error free but with the help of some great partner teams and a strong autonomous showing the kids were able to finish strong." After some shenanigans with the distance sensor in the first two matches, the team, the captain of the first place alliance, scored a close victory over Watt NXT to gain enough Ranking Points to stay in first. A subsequent attempt for a new state record fizzled out, after an accidental full park on the center pole led WeByte to topple LANbros in an attempt to dislodge them

Throughout the season, WeByte meets twice a week and three hours per practice. Currently they are working on a new cap ball mechanism to gain more points. Hopefully WeByte will have another chance at a higher record at the Garden State Rumble next month.

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is an annual international robotics competition for teams of 7-12 graders to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.

WeByte is part of JerseySTEM. JerseySTEM is a non-profit organization that is a network of parents, professionals, students and educators whose goal is to promote excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (“STEM”) education. We are dedicated to partnering with local schools and other organizations to create and enhance STEM-oriented educational opportunities as part of students' paths towards college and career readiness, and to develop effective STEM programs and initiatives that engage students and educators. JerseySTEM is also committed to bridging the gender gap in STEM education and sharing STEM-related opportunities with underprivileged students and communities.