John Jay 'Team MOB' Finishes 18th In World At FIRST Robotics Championship

CROSS RIVER, NY — The future is here, and a few remarkable members of the next generation of students are at the forefront.

The John Jay High School robotics Team MOB finished 18th in the world at the FIRST Robotics World Championship on May 2 in Houston, marking a milestone for the Cross River school. The team ranked 12th in its division during the round-robin tournament, higher than any other team from New York State.

The championship is the culminating event of worldwide youth robotics competitions and draws the top 300 teams out of 8,500 teams around the world. Team MOB then formed an alliance with two other U.S. teams and won its division, becoming one of six division champions at the event.

That result made Team MOB the very first New York team to compete in the Davinci Finals. By the end of the competition, the John Jay team had emerged as one of the top 18 teams in the entire world.

The achievement followed months of work that went far beyond building a robot. Students developed hardware and software, practiced driving skills and game play strategy, and often stayed late night after night. They also came to school on snow days and vacation days as they prepared for competition, organizers said.

The program also required students to learn a wide range of other skills tied to the demands of a high-level robotics season. Those included project management, such as funding, hard and soft deadlines, manufacturing timelines and stress testing. Students also worked on social media, communication with teams in different time zones and different languages, and managing internal team dynamics.

At the world championship, John Jay competed with and against teams from China, Brazil, Romania, South Korea and South Africa, along with many teams from the United States. Team MOB's finish placed it among the strongest robotics programs in the world and at the top of New York's teams at the event.