The Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy upper school had plenty of reasons to celebrate last week, as their science department picked up two huge awards during the CIJE: VEX Robotics Competition.

Against 26 teams from around the tri-state area, BCHA took home the gold with their Engineering 1 team. BCHA’s Engineering 2 team also finished in the top five, placing fourth overall.

“The two BCHA teams finished first and fourth in the recent CIJE: VEX Robotics Competition, which is a testament to the ingenuity of our students and the rigor of the BCHA engineering program,” said the team’s coach and BCHA upper school science teacher Dr. Paul Castle. “Mazel tov to our wonderful engineers.”

As a part of the school’s Engineering Team 1, students Benny Grunblatt, Joseph Bildner, Lilah Gordon and Dvir Frish took home the top prize.

“The CIJE Robotics Competition was an amazing experience,” said Grunblatt. “I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to work with my team on this incredible competition, during which I learned so many engineering skills and had a wonderful time. The feeling of bringing home the trophy for BCHA can’t be compared to anything else.”

In addition, the Engineering 2 team, comprised of Erez Fass, Ben Steiner, Jake Brenner, Max Ferits and Harry Cohen, was the only team to finish the round-robin portion of the robotics competition with a perfect record (6-0).

It was definitely an amazing outing for, not only the upper school science program, but for the entire BCHA community.