Team History
2022-2023
This year we moved our shop to another building on the NJSD campus.
2021-2022
The team was excited for their first season back after the pandemic.
As the Alliance captain during the Bensalem District event, not only did we win 1st place, but also the Excellence in Engineering Award. At the FMA Regionals, we ranked 14th and made it to the World Championships where we ranked 57Team 2016 was 30-25-2 in official play in 2022.
The team began recovering from the Pandemic. We did not go to a Regional event. We registered and competed in 2 district events.
Springside Chestnut Hill District: We ranked 9th and were the 6th seed captain. We played with team #’s 321 & 293.
Bensalem District: We ranked 3rd with a record of 14-5-0 and won the following awards: District Event Winner and Excellence in Engineering Award. We were the 2nd seed captain and played with teams 316 & 7414
2020-2021
In the 2021 competition season, all district, regional, and world competitions were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To keep FIRST going during the pandemic, Home Challenges were designed to challenge teams. Teams used their 2020 robot to program auto routines and drive through designed courses. Our team was in the Boron Group of the Infinite Recharge at Home Challenge where we ranked 8th. We also worked on designing a FRC game. It was a pirate-themed game and we called it Pirates Plunge. We learned so much that year about what goes into making a game.
By the end of 2021, off-season events were played to give teams the opportunity to compete in person. Team members had to wear masks and no visitors were allowed.
We participated in the Brunswick Eruption Revival on Saturday, November 6, 2021. We were finalists and we played on Alliance #4 with teams 2554 & 1923.
2019-2020
FIRST shut down after the second week of competitions. The events were canceled because of the pandemic. Our team was able to travel to Canada where we participated at the Festival de Robotique a Sherbrooke Regional. Fun getting off the bus and going through customs. At the competition, our team ranked 12th with a record of 10-8-0 and we won the following award: Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
Our team played with the 6th seed alliance with team #’s 7605 and 4947. Our robot was doing an amazing job as we controlled the balance for all 3 robots. Our alliance was disqualified in the the semi-finals because team #7605 got into a pushing match and a robot from the other alliance was knocked over. While in Canada the team enjoyed a day exploring Montreal. Ms. Hutchinson wasn’t able to come to Montreal because she was on a scooter recuperating from surgery on her broken ankle. The team was a big help as they pushed her up the hills.
2018-2019
Team 2016 was 27-26-1 in official play and 29-31-1 overall in 2019. As a member of the FIRST Mid-Atlantic District, the team ranked 27 having earned 135 points. The team participated in the Springside Chestnut Hill District Event in which we were in the 5th seed alliance with teams #’s 1218 and 486. In the eliminations, we earned District Event Finalist and then were awarded the Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen. Our team also went to the Bensalem District Event where we were the captain of the 7th seed with team #’s 1089 and 4361. The team received the Imagery Award. At the Midwest Regional in Chicago, our team won the Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Caufield and Byers. We also had a day off where we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We also went to Millennium Park to see the iconic Bean (Cloud Gate). We participated at the Mid-Atlantic District Championships where we received the Imagery Award. The team had a display where the kiosk looked like mission control that was taken over by monkeys and each time our team robot was on the field, a rocket with a monkey wrapped around it blasted off into space. Our drive team had rocket packs on their back. On our robot was a picture of the monkey waving and driving the robot. Our robot cart had space-themed panels too.
2017-2018
Team 2016 was 40-38-0 in official play and 48-47-0 overall in 2018.
As a member of the FIRST Mid-Atlantic district, Team 2016 ranked 12 having earned 198 points. At the snowy Central New York Regional the team played on the 4th seed alliance with team #’s 3000 and 639. Well, when it comes to epic fails and high scores our team took the prize. The alliance played in the semi-finals and our two alliance partners got stuck on the opponents' scale giving the other alliance 350 foul points. The announcer noted the following “a valiant effort from the New Jersey team” as we pushed our alliance partners off of the scale. At the Regional, our team won the following awards: The Safety Award sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories, and the Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Our team participated in two district events: Mount Olive District Event- We ranked 6th and played on the 2nd alliance with team #’s 1923 and 6860. We got to the semi-finals. Montgomery District Event-
We played on the 8th team alliance with team #’s 484 and 3637 in the quarterfinals.
We won the Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
After our district events, things picked up. Our small bot ruled the cube stack. We also had a 2 cube auto that kept our switch on our side. We went to the Mid-Atlantic District Championships at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. We played with teams #’s 2590 and 225 on the #1 seed alliance and we won the District Championship. Our win at the District Championships sent us to the World Championships in Detroit, Michigan. We competed in the Archimedes Division. We got to the semi-finals on the #2 alliance with team #’s 1315, 694 and 870.
2016-2017
Our team continued to do various PR events including our favorite a few days at the Space Fest in NYC on the Intrepid Pier. We also continued to do community events such as “National Night Out” and t-shirt launching at home football games. Our biggest community service activity continues to be working in the Lion’s Club Eyeglass recycling center. The team’s competition season was as follows:
We went to the Mount Olive District Event where we were ranked 26th. After Mount Olive, we went to the Rocket City Regional in Huntsville, AL. Our robot ranked 10th out of 50 teams. We were the 8th seed captain. We chose teams 6055 and 34. We beat the #1 seeded alliance and lost in the semi-finals. Our team received the Quality Award at the event. Next, the team went to their 2nd District event at Montgomery High School. The team ranked 26th. We were chosen by the #2 seed alliance captain. The alliance ( 2016, 11, 222) made it to the finals but fell to the number 8-seeded alliance. The team was awarded the Creativity Award at the event.
2015-2016
The team was looking forward to this season. It was our 10th anniversary, the year 2016, and it was the year of the monkey. Although it seemed it would be our year, we never made it to Worlds.
Our team continued to work with the Kiwanis Club at their eyeglass recycling center. We also continued to promote FIRST through several different appearances at community events. The team‘s competition record is as follows:
We attended the Hatboro-Horsham District event in which they ranked 8 overall. We were the 7 seed alliance captain and worked with teams 1647 and 486. The alliance lost in the quarter-finals. We were awarded the Industrial Safety Award at the event.
Next, the team went to the Seneca District event in which we ranked 6 overall. We were the #5 seed alliance captain and worked with teams 5113 and 4575. Our competition ended in the quarterfinals. We were awarded the Imagery Award and the Safety Award.
We went to the Queen City Regional in which we ranked 23rd out of 56 teams. We were the first pick of the 8-seed alliance captain. We worked with teams 3504 and 5811. We ended our competition in the quarterfinals. The team was awarded the Quality Award at the event.
Finally, the team played in the MAR District championships. We were having difficulty with the piston of our shooter and ranked #40 out of 60 teams. We did not get selected for the elimination rounds.
2014-2015
The 2015 FRC Season proved to be one of our most successful seasons in recent years. We competed at the South Florida Regional on Week 1 of the FIRST Competition season, won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award, and were Regional Finalists at the event. At the MAR Seneca District Event, we advanced to the elimination rounds and were awarded the Industrial Design Award. At the MAR Bridgewater-Raritan District Event, we were awarded the Entrepreneurship Award and once again reached the final rounds of Recycle Rush. At the ST. Louis World Championships, we reached the elimination rounds of the Hopper Division. We continued our community service efforts with Lion's Club and began partnerships with two new organizations. We organized and presented a STEM class at the Antheil Elementary School Summer Academy and at The ARC Mercer, a disabled senior center, we held robot demonstrations for the senior citizens. We attended numerous Outreach events such as the Science and Space Festival, Maker Faire, and Ewing Township's National Night Out. We had a fantastic time throughout the competition season and are looking forward to next year's challenge.
2013-2014
This season provided a new achievement for our team, as it was the first time we won the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Buckeye Regional. It was exhilarating to have won such an amazing award and qualified for the World Championships once again, this time through a new path. At the St. Louis Championships, our robot was a finalist on the Curie field, falling to the eventual World Champions. We continued to expand our Outreach by attending various community events, while also strengthening our relationships with our community by continuing our community service efforts.
2012-2013
This season we expanded the amount of community service opportunities available for team members. These opportunities include assisting the Kiwanis Club in several events, increasing the activities we perform with the children at HomeFront, and a new connection with the Ewing Township Green Commission. Regarding our competition season, we continued our success by winning 3 awards, while also becoming champions at Monty Madness, an off-season competition.
2011-2012
The new season led to the introduction of the Mid-Atlantic Regional (MAR) events. However, we followed our usual pattern of success, qualifying for the St. Louis championships while adding to our numerous awards. Our focus for Chairman this year was making and strengthening our connections, which we did with HomeFront, Lion's Club, and Kiwanis Club.
2010-2011
This season was probably our defining moment as a team, building upon the multiple successes of previous years which sent us flying to the top, nearing the pinnacle of the FIRST program. Compounding on our technical success from the previous year, we did not stay lax or rest on our laurels. Instead, filled with new "young blood" holding many of the team's leadership positions, we quickly got to work putting our minds to the metal, figuratively speaking, to create the most advanced machine we had ever created. With a combination of sleek design, expert programming, and skillful wiring and building, our robot became the prime example for other teams to follow. We rolled into the New Jersey Regional determined to win becoming nearly an unstoppable force. It was no surprise when we came out on top, becoming the new champions. We pulled it off again in Washington D.C. and became finalists, but our crowning moment came at the St. Louis Championships. We came out as victors in our division and even made it to the finals clinching the National Championship Finalist position, coming in 2nd place in the entire world. It became clear then, that we were officially a world-class team. We also continued to push hard with the Chairman, making the connections we gained the previous year count reaching out to even more Deaf Schools and making contact without local government officials, such as our congressman Rush Holt. We also had a huge influx of new Deaf students joining the FIRST program, as the barriers which formerly held them back began to disappear. Unfortunately, one of our long-time mentors, Richard Prospero, lost his battle with cancer and passed away. This prompted us to dedicate our robot to him, but we are sure he would be extremely proud of our achievements thus far.
2009-2010
Learning from our technical mistakes from the previous year we made it a priority to organize ourselves as a successful and effective team. At kickoff we were divided into "funky monkey teams" or Functional Monkey teams which allowed the influx and inclusion of new ideas and spread out the responsibilities of each function, overcoming the disorganization we faced in the previous year. Because we were able to effectively organize our resources we became very successful that year, becoming finalists at the New Jersey Regional and even gaining the championship at the Dallas Regional while winning the Excellence in Engineering Award. While it was our 2nd year officially doing Chairman we built off of the framework of the previous year and made numerous connections, reaching out to Deaf Schools and asking the FIRST program to provide closed captioning for kick-off in order to further integrate the Deaf community into the FIRST program. Our dedication to the deaf community caught the eye of FIRST at the Dallas regional, which allowed us to win the Dallas Regional Chairman’s Award. We ended up going to the championships and leaving with nothing but this motivated us and pushed us to outdo ourselves the next season.
2008-2009
No longer considering ourselves just a rookie team, we expanded our goals in order to acknowledge the FIRST mission. For the first time, our team had an official Chairman’s subteam in order to take the on unique challenges required to obtain the Chairman’s award, which became a main focus and goal. We strived to be the model team in which other teams could emulate while causing a significant change not only within the culture of FIRST but within the world itself. To accomplish this, we launched Project IFADS, (Increasing First Awareness in Deaf Schools) in order to get the FIRST message out to the Deaf community, through our unique relationship with the New Jersey School for the Deaf - Katzenbach Campus. However, due to technical difficulties, we were unable to submit our Chairman’s essay but our unique outlook won us the 2009 New Jersey Regional Judges Award. Furthermore, with the inclusion of deaf students on our team the first step towards the integration of the Deaf Community within FIRST had been taken. On the technical side, we faced some major design challenges and time constraints which ultimately led to our substandard performance that year with the robot. However, taking these failures with stride we vowed never to repeat the same mistakes again
2007-2008
We geared up for our 2nd year as a full-fledged robotics team, but unfortunately due to space constraints, we were unable to use our old facility at Ewing High School. Thankfully the New Jersey School for the Deaf - Katzenbach Campus, graciously allowed us to use their shop space which was extremely valuable to the team. It was at this point in time that we found our partnership with the Deaf School to be the defining backbone that would help us make a unique change in FIRST. This would eventually become the stepping stone to make our debut with the project IFADS. While being only a recently created team we were able to stun everyone through our expert design which landed us the title of being the 2nd fastest robot in the entire world. We came out as victors in the Chesapeake region and eventually became a finalist within the Newton Division at the championships.
2006-2007
Until about 2006 we did not have an official robotics team and were just merely a small club of students interested in robotics. From our humble beginnings, we were allotted a small space within the abandoned wood shop at Ewing High School. Through generous sponsorship from Johnson and Johnson, Janssen, Wachovia, and NASA we were able to fund ourselves and become a full-fledged robotics team with just 15 team members. With just a small crew to start off with we went above and beyond expectations, even claiming the 2007 Rookie All-Star Award, which celebrates the rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science and technology. Being the "rookie" did not hold us back and through our success, we made an increased effort to expand and grow FIRST Team 2016.
Accomplishments
2020: Infinite Recharge
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Festival de Robotique a Sherbrooke Regional Entrepreneurship Award
2019: Destination: Deep Space
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Midwest Regional Entrepreneurship Award
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Springside Chestnut-Hill District Event Finalist
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Springside Chestnut-Hill District Event Imagery Award
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Bensalem District Event Imagery Award
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District Championship Imagery Award
2018: FIRST Power Up
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Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
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Safety Award sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories
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Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
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MAR District Championship Winner
2017: FIRST Steamworks
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Rocket City Regional Quality Award sponsored by Motorola Solutions Foundation
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Montgomery District Event Finalist
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Montgomery District Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox
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Midnight Mayhem V Finalist
2016: FIRST Stronghold
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Hatboro-Horsham District Event Industrial Design Award
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Seneca District Event Imagery Award
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Seneca District Event Industrial Safety Award
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Queen City Regional Quality Award
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NNJ&MS
2015: Recycle Rush
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South Florida Regional Finalists
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South Florida Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
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Seneca District Event Industrial Design Award
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Bridgewater-Raritan District Event Finalists
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Bridgewater-Raritan District Event Entrepreneurship Award
2014: Aerial Assist
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Hatboro-Horsham District Event Gracious Professionalism Award
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Queen City Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
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Queen City Regional Industrial Safety Award
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Queen City Regional Entrepreneurship Award
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MAR Championships Woodie Flowers Finalist Award
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MAR Championships Volunteer of the Year Award
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St. Louis World Championships Finalist - Curie Division
2013: Ultimate Ascent
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TCNJ District Event Industrial Design Award
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Buckeye Regional Chairman's Award
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Bridgewater-Raritan District Event Excellence in Engineering Award
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Monty Madness Champions
2012: Rebound Rumble
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Hatboro-Horsham District Event Finalists
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Rutgers District Event Finalists
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New York City Regional Quarterfinalists
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Hatboro-Horsham District Event Quality Award
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Rutgers District Event Gracious Professionalism Award
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New York City Regional Industrial Safety Award
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New York City Regional Gracious Professionalism Award
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Website Excellence Award
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MAR Championships Finalists
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Galileo Division Quarterfinalists at World Championships
2011: Logo Motion
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Ramp Riot Champion
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Ramp Riot Spirit Award
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Monty Madness Finalist
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Washington D.C. Regional Finalist
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Washington D.C. Regional Judges Award
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Washington D.C. Regional 2nd Place in Safety
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St. Louis Championship Safety Pit Award
2010: Breakaway
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New Jersey Regional Finalist
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New Jersey Regional Team Spirit Award
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Dallas Regional Champion
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Dallas Regional Excellence in Engineering Award
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Dallas Regional Chairman's Award
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Best Bonus Score Award
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Champion
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Ramp Riot Finalist
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Monty Madness Finalist
2009: Lunacy
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New Jersey Regional Judges Award
2008: Overdrive
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Chesapeake Regional Champion - Newton Division Finalist
2007: Rack ‘N Roll
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Rookie All Star Award