The Bridgewater-Raritan High School robotics team, also known as T.E.S.T. Team 303, recently attended its first robotics competition of the 2025 season, which took place at Warren Hills Regional High School in Washington.
Over 30 club members participated, with the trip taking place on Saturday, March 22, and Sunday, March 23.
FIRST is an international organization dedicated to inspiring young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Through engaging in robotics competitions and hands-on learning experiences, FIRST fosters teamwork, critical thinking and innovation among participants. By providing a collaborative and supportive environment, FIRST enables students to develop valuable skills that extend beyond robotics.
Within the FIRST organization, teams are organized into regions, such as the FIRST Mid-Atlantic (FMA) region, which comprises schools and teams within a specific geographical area. The FMA region conducts a series of regional events where teams compete for the opportunity to qualify for the FMA Championships, a highly anticipated regional competition held in April at Lehigh University.
The Warren Hills event brought together 32 teams from across the region. Teams competed in 64 qualification matches, where they are randomly paired with other robots to form an alliance. Points scored here would prove to be important for the rankings used to determine playoffs.
The drive team for this event was made up of five team members: junior Anika Seshan as Coach, sophomore Mithun Chigurupathi as Driver, junior Arav Kewalia as Operator, freshman Ronald Liu as Technician, and sophomore Vedaang Verma as Human Player.
At the end of the qualification matches, Team 303 was ranked 26 out of 32 teams. However, their efforts still paid off, as they were the first pick of an alliance captain to compete in the playoff bracket. They were on an alliance with Team 752 from Newark, New Jersey and Team 219, the host team of the competition, from Washington, New Jersey. Together, they would make up Alliance Seven.
The team competed in the double elimination losers bracket, and unfortunately they were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs at Warren Hills.
Despite this, the team was recognized with the FIRST Team Sustainability Award, sponsored by Dow. This award “recognizes a team which has developed sustainable practices to have a positive environmental impact and achieve long-term continuity”, according to FIRST.
Going forward, Bridgewater-Raritan High School Team 303 hopes to continuously improve its performance and become a stronger team. More recently, they just attended their second regional competition at William Tenant High School in Pennsylvania.
