D-E’s Upper School Robotics, which has made a name for itself in the student robotics circuit, annually takes part in the FIRST Tech Challenge, an international robotics competition for high school students in which teams go head-to-head to design, build, program, and operate robots to complete a mission.

“We’re halfway through our FIRST Tech Challenge robotics season!” says Coach Chris Fleischl, who provides the students with the resources and tools they need to be successful. “Our varsity team, Critical Mass, and our JV team, Absolute Zero, have completed their first design prototypes and are beginning work on their new, improved robot designs for the second half of the season.”

Critical Mass is one of the oldest teams in the state and has competed continuously since the FIRST Tech Challenge was established in 2007, says Mr. Fleischl. “Our team has won many awards at the county and state level,” he adds, “and has competed at the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championships three times—most recently in 2023.”

The teams participate in meets in preparation for the big event of the season, the Bergen County League Tournament at the end of February. “Our objective is to qualify for the State Championship,” says Mr. Fleischl.

The last meet was on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, at River Dell High School in Oradell, where students competed against 22 other teams in Northern New Jersey. “Both our varsity and JV teams finished the day with 3 wins and 2 losses,” says Mr. Fleischl. “They’re gearing up for our next event on Sunday, Jan. 19 at Blair Academy.”

“We work hard every day to continue to iterate on our robot to even slightly improve our chances in competitions”

The Upper School students also work closely with our Middle School Robotics Teams to mentor them in the FIRST LEGO League competition, says Mr. Fleischl. At the regional tournament in November, the MS teams made their mark, with Team Nitro (7th graders) winning the Robot Design Award, Team Neutron (8th graders) earning the Rising All Star award for mentoring and outreach, and the Nano Navigators (6th graders) winning the highest-performing rookie team.

In early December, Team Nitro competed at the State Tournament in Mount Olive, where they presented an impressive prototype of a building product designed to combat the effects of ocean acidification in local waterways. 

Jackson Chang ’25, who joined the Robotics Team in his freshman year, says, “I fell in love with robotics because of opportunities to express myself through building components… Nothing excites me more than when a mechanism finally works as planned.”

He says he also appreciates the community aspect of being on the team. “Not only do I get to hang out with friends every day during practices, I get to interact with teams all over the world with a common interest.”

Jackson also looks forward to attending the state tournament and, potentially, the world tournament. “We work hard every day to continue to iterate on our robot to even slightly improve our chances in competitions,” he says. 

We’re rooting for all our future engineers and data scientists!