Chatham High Students Win $12K at Robotics Competition

Chatham High School's robotics team recently took second place in the Panasonic Robotic Competition at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Students Drew Lilley, Austin Barkhorn and Chris Hartigan each won $4,000 for their top-three performance on April 24.

The three students kept a detailed logbook, totaling over 150 pages, documenting each step of the projects. The logbook and a written report were both submitted as part of the competition.

Lilley, Barkhom and Hartigan also gave an oral presentation in front of a panel of Panasonic engineers. One of the presidents of Panasonic Corp. also attended the presentation, and all had commendations and praise for the team.

Chatham High School was one of only 28 schools from around the state to earn an invitation to the final round. In three rounds of competitions their robot performed 70 percent of the required tasks in the allotted time, then 80 percent, then 90 percent.

David Bandel, the physics teacher at Chatham High and advisor to the robotics team, said, "To our knowledge, only the winning team completed more than our robot."

Lilley was featured on Chatham Patch in 2010 when he built a wind turbine in his backyard. He also won $2,000 for his role on the 2012 robotics team which won fourth place in last year's competition.

Watch the video above of the students' robot at competition.