Harvey Robotics Wraps Up 2023 Winning Major Awards

KATONAH, N.Y. - The Harvey School robotics program headed into the holidays and the new year with more hardware won at two championship tournaments held in December. 

Over the two-day competition Dec. 15-16 at Sugar Rush, a VEX Robotics high school competition held in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the Harvey 6277C team of Blake Friedman, Katie McCulloch, Meaghan Sullivan, and Ryan Dey of Yorktown Heights received the Innovation Award for having the best design process, best engineering journal, and most innovative robot design. This is the second major award that team 6277C has received at a national event.

"This team is doing special things, first a Design Award at The WAVE in early December and now the Innovation Award at Sugar Rush,” said Harvey robotics program director and coach Chris Kelly. “They’ve worked incredibly hard and truly deserve their success," he added. Sugar Rush, held at The Hershey Lodge, featured 80 of the best teams in the United States.

On Dec. 9, team 6277C had a banner day at the VEX VRC High School Tournament held at Mount Academy in Esopus, New York. Competing against 30 teams from the southern New York region, the Harvey team, in collaboration with Mount Academy, finished the event as tournament champions. 6277C also won the Excellence Award, given to the team that ranks highly in the three categories of competition, robot skills, and engineering design journal. 

In addition to acknowledging the great success of team 6277C, Coach Kelly also singled out teams 6277A, Matias Sin and Ben Zilberstein, and 6277B, Logan Alexander of Goldens Bridge and Daniel Wood, for giving solid performances. Coach Kelly said, "I am happy all of our teams had an enjoyable day, and they can all be proud of their success.” The coach also praised his students for their sense of teamwork and sportsmanship. “I am most proud of how well they worked together and how tremendously helpful they were to teams with less experience. I was repeatedly approached by coaches who wanted to point out how our teams were open to talk about design and coding and help their teams improve.” 

Coach Kelly takes great pride in how well his students perform and conduct themselves at their competitions. He said, “Our kids and our program are recognized nationally, and they represent the Harvey School's values and traditions in such an outstanding manner."