Organized by the SBJC, 12 districts faced off in the VEX IQ Robotics Next Level Challenge at Garfield Middle School on Wednesday, December 12, 2018. And we're proud to say that our SBJC students placed fourth overall!

Bogota, Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Garfield, Hasbrouck Heights, Lodi, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, Rutherford, South Bergen Jointure Commission, South Hackensack, and Wallington all competed in the event. Rutherford Union School won the event with 111 points, taking home the championship trophy for the third year in a row. Becton Regional High School's Robotics Club officiates the event.

The following is a description of the challenge from VEX Robotics: "VEX IQ Challenge Next Level is played on a 4’x8’ rectangular field. Two robots compete in the Teamwork Challenge as an alliance in 60 second long teamwork matches, working collaboratively to score points. Teams also compete in the Robot Skills Challenge where one robot takes the field to score as many points as possible. These matches consist of Driving Skills Matches, which will be entirely driver controlled, and Programming Skills Matches, which will be autonomous with limited human interaction. The object of the game is to attain the highest score by scoring and stacking colored Hubs in Building Zones, removing Bonus Hubs from the Hanging Structure, and by Parking or Hanging on the Hanging Bar."

Here are the events final standings:

1. Rutherford
2. Moonachie
3. Carlstadt
4. SBJC
5. Lodi (tied)
6. Lyndhurst (tied)
7. Garfield
8. Wallington
9. Hasbrouck Heights
10. South Hackensack
11. East Rutherford
12. Bogota