Last week, Westchester Torah Academy’s new robotics team traveled to Long Island to participate in a Robotics Tournament run by CIJE (Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education). They had been working during their elective block since the beginning of the year on their robots, building them, coding them and learning all the necessary skills. There were about 95 participating robots in the middle school category, two of which were entered by the WTA team.

The competition was fierce. Each team played five rounds, in which their robot, paired with that of another school, had to complete a number of tasks. By the end, both of WTA’s robots had made it to the finals (placing 2nd and 10th out of 16)! Sixth grader Sarah Weinberg said, “As we entered the finals, I was so excited and terrified at the same time!” During the finals, one of the two WTA teams came in seventh place overall, while the other robot was tied for second! During the tie breaker round the results came in and WTA placed third overall! They cannot wait to compete again in the spring, and have already begun to make plans for first place!

The team wants to give a big THANK YOU to Morah Kim Siegel for being an amazing robotics mentor and coach!

Shoutout to team members Eli Gadon, Evan Pollack, Noam Kahen, Daniel Rubin, Meirav Grimaldi, Sarah Weinberg, Noam Levy and Ari Tratt for their hard work and for bringing home the trophy!