Millburn Topples Thousands To Take World Robotics Championship

MILLBURN, NJ - After being crowned tournament champions at six out of six regional tournaments in which they competed, Millburn High School's VEX Robotics team 7405P took on more than 30,000 students on 1,650 teams to be crowned one of five champions in the VEX World Championship.

Millburn Phreak Show, their official name, is ranked as one of the top skills teams in the world and competed in Louisville, Kentucky last weekend.

“I couldn't be more proud of the team. Their hard work and dedication paid off in a big way, Coach Hilton Seibert told Patch.

The VEX Robotics World Championship, a program of Innovation First International run by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation was named the largest robotics competition in the world by Guinness World Records in April 2018.

Over 20,000 teams from about 65 countries begin the season and less than 600 teams qualify for the World Championships, said Coach David Farrell.

At Worlds there are 6 High School divisions of 96 teams. Millburn won the Science Division to advance to the World Championship Round Robin finals. There the six division champion alliances play each other and the top two alliances play in a two out of three championship Tournament. Millburn Team 7405P and their alliance partner from China faced off against the Research division champion alliance, also From China.

Millburn won first, lost second and then won the third match 18-15 to become the First team in New Jersey to ever win the VEX World Championship.

Tournament Champions:

• New Century Robotics Club (VRC middle school team 7671C) in Quzhou, Zhejiang, China
• ShangHai RuiGuan Robotics Activity Center (VRC middle school team 9123A) in Shanghai, China
• Shanghai Jing’an Science Technology Youth Center (VRC high school team 98060) in Shanghai, China
• Millburn High School (VRC high school team 7405P) in Millburn, New Jersey
• IFT Robotics (VEX U team IFI) in West Hartford, Connecticut

Millburn is the first team in New Jersey to ever win the VEX World Championship, and was also the first NJ team to ever win a Division at Worlds. Millburn was also the first NJ team to ever win a Division at Worlds.

"Our team has proven to be one of the best in our region, and we are ready to take it to a more competitive level," team Captain Bryan Levine said before his team left for the competition. "It'll be a great experience at the least, competing against 500 teams from 30 different countries."

Team:

• Bryan F.Levine—-Team Captain
• Alexander McBride
• Javier Coindreau
• Zimri Leisher
• Ethan Mak
• Jack Mansfield
• Grant Haas
• Joshua Kirshenbaum
• Bruce Zhang
• Jaffer Ali
• Sarah B. Rose
• David Farrell, Teacher/Robotics Coach
• Hilton M. Seibert, Teacher /Robotics Coach

According to Innovation First International, which developed the VEX Robotics program, VEX classes aren't solely meant to train future engineers. They're designed to provide a framework for teaching everything from math and computer science to life skills like teamwork, project management and critical thinking.

Millburn High School has three VEX Robotics teams 7405M, 7405N and 7405P and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) team 8405, all of which had excellent seasons where they consistently placed in the final rounds of all tournaments in which they competed, and consistently brought back Excellence, Design, Think and Skills awards.

The home of Millburn Robotics is the MILL (Millburn Innovative Learning Lab), the state-of-the-art learning and maker space opened this year thanks to the vision and investment of Board of Education and Education Foundation of Millburn Short Hills. Team members can be found at the MILL at all hours – lunchtime, late nights and weekends – working to perfect their robots.

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