Mayor Carl Suraci and Deputy Mayor Gloria McCauley with members of the 2017 Hillsborough High School RoboRaiders Team 75.
By Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
After a successful season of robotics and organizational skills, the Hillsborough High School RoboRaiders Team 75 were recently recognized by the township committee.
Mayor Carl Suraci, along with Deputy Mayor Gloria McCauley and Committeeman Doug Tomson were on hand to present a proclamation honoring the group of teens, who performed well at the local, state and national levels.
Comprised of 67 students of varying grade levels, the RoboRaiders are made of 10 different departments with each operating more like divisions in an engineering company than an extracurricular high school team.
The team has its own dedicated finance department, which handles funds received from Hillsborough High School, the Hillsborough Township School District and student dues. Other money is obtained through their primary sponsorship with Johnson and Johnson, grants and team fundraisers.
"The Hillsborough High School robotics team would not be able to do what we do without the support of our sponsors and the community," student leader Christopher Rothmann said. "So on behalf of Team 75, we would like to thank the township committee and the community of Hillsborough."
Other departments within Team 75 include the Engineering Department, which conceptualizes potential robot designs, and Public Relations, which helps get the word out about the group’s undertakings.
Earlier this year, the team competed against almost 40 other teams at a Mt. Olive High School District Event, where they made it to the finals, were named the Event Finalist and were Engineering Inspiration winners.
Similarly, in early April, the team competed in the Montgomery District robotics event and received the Industrial Design Award, sponsored by General Motors. They were also named the event’s winners.
The group of teens later competed at the Mid-Atlantic District Championship at Lehigh University. There, the RoboRaiders earned the Engineering Inspiration award and placed in the eighth seed Alliance Captains during elimination matches at World Championships.
In addition to the team success, Diana Voronin was recognized as one of four Dean’s List Finalists in the Mid-Atlantic Region, an award for exemplary students in their region.
Officials said they were proud of Team 75’s robotics work and continued representation of the township.
The 2017 Hillsborough High School RoboRaiders Team 75 was led by teacher advisor Christos Papadopoulos and student leaders Christopher Rothmann and Madie Vailhe.
The team is also comprised of the following members: Vishakha Agarwal, Gautam Agarwal, Atiq Ahsan, Shibi Balamurugan, Nicholas Baldwin, Ryan Barry, Jarod Bisnar, Eli Capotorto, Ana Caro Del Castillo, Adam Casto, William Chen, Farhan Chhipa, Ryan Coiley, Jared Constantine, Marissa Creelman, Nikhil Damle, Mishti Das, Nicholas DeFilippo, Karan Desai, Nikhil Deshmukh, Dimitri Duma, Nathaniel Endick, Matt Fodera, Alison Fong, Shivam Gandhi, Hasan Hamad, Nikitha Harikumar, Shawn Hauss, Esmeralda Herrera-Dolores, Samuel Hoffman, Mrigank Jain, Abby Johnstone, Sreevenkata Kambhampati, Chris Keller, Sean Kile, Chad Lape, Daniel Lee, Alex Li, Ryan Lipper, Katrina Liu, Teresa Liu, Alicia Liu, Anastasia Liu, Rijul Newalkar, Evan Obenauer, Jay Parikh, Danice Marriel Pe Benito, Smruti Rajpara, Arya Rao, Nikhil Reddy, Matt Reyes, Amanda Richardson, Alex Robuck, Chris Rothmann, Zachary Seery, Nirmal Sekher, Neel Shah, Leonard Shapiro, Shrish Shenoy, Jon Snyder, Manasi Soman, David Spinrad, Lokraj Srinivasan, Alex Stadnitski, Brian Sun, Sonia Swami, Lamiah Syed, Samir Tripathy, Nihar Trivedi, Madeline Vailhe, Diana Voronin, Liam Waddleton, John Walsh and Justin Wirzman.
