By Kush Dave, The Prowler
The champion of RoboCon 2024 resides at Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
Bridgewater-Raritan High School's Robotics Team 303 was crowned the king of the 2024 RoboCon New Jersey Robot Rumble, a state-wide robotics event that was held at the Bridgewater Commons Mall on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29.
According to the RoboCon New Jersey website, the main goal of the host committee, The Organization for Robotics of Bound Brook, is to foster interest in STEM while educating the public about all the great things happening in the area.
While shoppers strolled throughout the weekend at the Bridgewater Commons Mall, 24 scholastic teams from all parts of New Jersey competed in this elite competition.
Team 303 capped the two-day affair with its championship.
While Team 303’s robot wasn’t working very well offensively, the squad's defensive skills caught the eye of the first-place alliance captains, who selected Bridgewater-Raritan's Team 303 to compete in playoffs alongside two other teams, Team 1676, The Pascack Pi-oneers from Montvale, and Team 9015, Questionable Engineering from Jersey City.
The alliance, which consisted of Team 303, Team 1676 and Team 9015, worked their way up the bracket and won the final match of the weekend and thus becoming the champions of 2024.
The title signaled the second straight year that Bridgewater-Raritan's Team 303 won the RoboCon New Jersey Robot Rumble at the Bridgewater Commons Mall.
John Sirusas, Team 303 Advisor, was quite thrilled with the efforts of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School students.
"An amazing win that came through the determination of our team and lots of help from others, even those we were competing against. It showed the true spirit of these competitions on every level. I'm proud of everyone who participated," said Mr. Sirusas, who is an Instructional Assistant at the high school.
Team 303 also came away with a check of $1,000 when Bridgewater-Raritan was named a finalist for the Impact Grant Award As a result of its community involvement, Team 303 was one of the teams to receive the check.
The weekend was filled with a busy showcase of activities.
The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Crescendo game, where high school students competed with robots they had designed and built. Alongside the competition, Robocon featured a large STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) showcase in the region, drawing families and students eager to explore the various aspects of STEM through hands-on and interactive activities.
The FRC Crescendo game was the main attraction. It was set up in the main hall of Bridgewater Commons, with teams working in alliances to complete the game tasks and rack up points. Team 303 was among the participants which competed during both days with qualification matches, with playoffs taking place Sunday afternoon.
The Saturday drive team for Team 303 consisted of junior Alex Masin as coach, junior Arya Vaidya as Driver, junior Josh Baron as operator, junior Malav Patel as technician and sophomore Alex Kziak as human player.
Team 303's Sunday drive team listed Arya Vaidya as a coach, junior Arav Kewalia as Driver, Alex Masin as operator, Josh Baron as a technician, and sophomore Mithun Chigurupathi as a human player.
The event also held several STEAM exploration activities, in a separate area of the mall, called “investigation alley”. Each team had a table in the hallway and had some sort of teaching aspect to the activity. Other exhibitors included local colleges, the library and the Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School (SCTVHS). This is also where other branches of robotics, such as FTC and BattleBots, took place.
Bridgewater-Raritan's Patel commented on his experience attending the event.
“RoboCon was a great event to attend, bringing together 24 teams from around the region. It felt great to win, especially since I was part of the drive team. We look forward to doing great things in the future," he said.
A new member this year to Team 303, junior Harish Subramanian, shared his experience about attending his first robotics event.
“It was cool to see a robotics competition in person. It gave me a better idea of what robotics is about, which excites me for what I will get to accomplish while I am on the team," he revealed.
Starting off the year with the RoboCon 2024 victory, Team 303 will attend one more off-season competition at North Brunswick Township High School on Saturday, October 26, before the next season kicks off in January.