With the alliance of the Bayonne High School Robotics Team; “High Voltage 2.0”, Raider Robotics’ of SPFHS competed for the first time since the club’s formation in 2019. Due to their high performance in the league tournament, Raider Robotics advanced to states and received the Innovate Award and the Second-Place Inspire Award. 

Due to the pandemic, Raider Robotics relied on virtual meetings when they got their start, so many of the members have stuck with the team with the hope of competing for years. Once they reached the competitive stage, the team kept a streak of victory that allowed them to move on to greater competitions. 

Gallery • 6 Photos

Ethan White and Alex Smith make some last minute touches at the tournament.

 Each of the 15 members of the team is sorted into one of the three main sections: programing, building and logistics. These sections collaborate to make the club the best that it can be with the help of their four captains (senior Jason Tannenbaum, senior Jackson Lubalin, junior Rushil Damania and junior Thomas Metzger) and advisor Mathew Ducker Duffy.  

Before coming to SPF, Duffy was a robotics coach in Illinois; he wanted to share the wonders of robotics with New Jersey upon his arrival. 

“Robotics has everything,” Duffy said. “It has science, technology, engineering, mathematics and physics. It gives you the opportunity to explore all these areas at once.” 

On an average week, the club meets every Thursday and Friday from 3-5. During this time, they collaborate on how to better their creation and make preparations for upcoming competitions. 

“You don’t need to have knowledge of robotics to learn and be successful here,” Co-Captain Jason Tannenbaum said. “While some have more experience than others, we are all actively learning and growing in every way together.” 

A competition is often a long day for the team but they manage to enjoy the time. Once arriving at the competition location the robot is immediately inspected to make sure the mechanical, technical and field inspections are up to par. They then are able to meet with other teams. Robotics competitions are all about the mechanism and the strategy; a good mechanism and strategy help ensure the chance of receiving the maximum amount of points. The top four teams then have the opportunity to form an alliance and are placed in the league tournament. The alliances battle it out and the winning alliance gains its place at states.

Unfortunately, Raider Robotics lost in the semi-final round at states; their season has come to an end

Fortunately, this isn’t the end of robotics. Although they are no longer competing the team still plans to meet to continue bettering their skills, knowledge and spending time with the family they created. For the future, the team hopes to discover ways to introduce robotics to the younger students of SPF and grow the love for STEM.   

“It was such an amazing experience that taught me so much about leadership, teamwork, the robotics field itself and so much more.” Co-Captain Jackson Lubalin said. “The experiences and memories made here at robotics will live with me throughout my entire life.”