Local Robotics Team Wins First Place At District Championship

Press release from Elissa Aaronson:

April 4, 2023

Questionable Engineering, a Jersey City, Hoboken and wider Hudson County community based First Robotics Competition (FRC) high school robotics team, made a smashing debut with a first place finish in their first ever district championship in Robbinsville, NJ, followed by an impressive
second place showing in Warren HIlls, NJ. This talented team is looking forward to competing in the FIRST Mid-Atlantic District Championship in Bethlehem, PA April 5-8.

QE, as the team is affectionately known, was founded in August 2022 by a group of students from High Tech High School in Secaucus, NJ and was joined by students from McNair High School and St. Dominic’s Academy, both in Jersey City, NJ. Team captain Lucas Slurzberg remarked, “There’s not a problem that one of my team members can’t solve. The build and code talent is superb.”

Over the past two weeks, this talented team has taken home the coveted “blue banner” as a district event winner and earned the “Rookie All Star” and “Rookie Inspiration” awards. Their coach, Dave Slurz, who is also a rookie to FRC, was honored with the Woodie Flowers nomination and the Donald Bower award. Dave explained, “When you have a group of high school kids so determined to create a robotics program that they are willing to start one from scratch, you know you have some fearless competitors.” QE is also supported by mentors that hail from Stevens Institute of Technology and industry.

With regional competition already on the calendar and the World event in Houston, TX in their sights, the only thing slowing down this rookie team is their need to raise $10,000 in a matter of weeks to cover registration and team and equipment travel costs. Any and all support for QE can be directed to https://www.gofundme.com/f/qedcmp.

FIRST Robotics aims to inspire students into careers of science and technology through building robots. Founded by Dean Kamen in 1989, FIRST Robotics aims to build the leaders of tomorrow by immersing them in a microcosm of the real world with high-pressure, team oriented activities that build communication skills, leadership and confidence. For more information, visit the FIRST Website.

This press release was produced by Elissa Aaronson. The views expressed here are the author's own.