 Two teams from MMI Preparatory School’s Robotics Club won five awards in the 2010 New York/New Jersey Botball Regional Tournament. The tournament was held May 15 at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J.
The Botball Educational Robotics Program puts middle and high school students on the creative side of technology as they design, build, program and document a pair of autonomous robots that work in tandem to score points during a tournament. The hands-on project requires students to use their science, engineering, technology, math and writing skills.
Each year, teams build independent robots and compete against one another by completing predetermined tasks in a specified time period. Teams score points with completed tasks and successful movements, and points can also be deducted for unsuccessful movements and tasks. A team’s success relies solely on the programming of its robots. The robots rely on their computer programming to start, stop and maneuver on the game board. 
MMI computer science instructor Justin Vincent advises and oversees the Robotics and Electronics Club. This is the fifth year MMI has participated in the Botball competition.
MMI’s Team A received a Judges’ Choice Award for a Perfect Presentation, given by Roderick Cook and Antonia Diener. The award was the first given for a perfect presentation in the five years MMI has participated in the competition. Members of Team A were Caroline Bandurska, Roderick Cook, Jacob Daniels, Antonia Diener, Dylan Donaldson, Brianna Dzurishin, Craig Harvey, Tiffany Harvey, Taylor Kostyal, Andrew Mhley and Bala Natarajan.
Team B earned a Judges’ Choice Award for the most unique "Duck Collecting Mechanism” as well as first place in the Alliance Challenge and fourth place overall in the competition. Members of Team B were Lewis Bevans, Paul Brasavage, Sarah Careyva, Briana Cole, Justin Dasher, Paul Gronski, Cory Heffelfinger, Morgan Herbener, Michael Macarevich, Leo Moroz, Hardik Patel, Sam Scalleat and Corey Sisock.
 Serving as team managers for MMI’s Robotics Club were Carley Bonacci and Julia Dasher.
The two MMI teams combined received the Spirit Award for encouraging and cheering for their teams.
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