When a group of young engineers from Cedar Hill Preparatory School walked into the Menlo Park Mashup Tournament on May 16, they weren't just competing — they were showcasing months of curiosity, creativity, and determination. Wildcats@CHP earned 4th Place in both the Innovation Project Award and the Motivate Award, holding their own against more than 30 teams from across New Jersey.
The team's Innovation Project, Archeo Lens, was entirely student-driven — from identifying a real-world problem to designing a prototype solution and presenting it confidently to a panel of industry expert judges. Students Nyle Thaver, Snehal Nadella, Akhil Kota, Ian Lee, and Ishaan Rajiv represented the team on tournament day, while teammates Shivad Desai, Afzaal Mohamed, Yajur Subramaniam, Aiden Betancourt, James Nguyen, Dylan Lee, and Jonathan Li contributed to the research and development behind the project.
Competing across all four FLL categories — Robot Design, Robot Game, Innovation Project, and Core Values — the students built and programmed their robot through iterative testing and walked into every judging room ready to defend every decision they made.
"What stood out about this team was that every stage of this process was completely student-driven," said coach Madhulika Verma, Technology Teacher and FLL team coach. "They didn't just build a robot — they identified a real-world problem, designed a solution, and walked into that tournament ready to defend every decision they made."
The team was guided throughout the season by coaches Madhulika Verma and Hemlata Iyengar, both Technology Teachers at Cedar Hill Prep, whose mentorship helped shape the team's technical foundation and competitive readiness from the first meeting to the final presentation.
At Cedar Hill Preparatory School, STEM is never just a subject — it is an invitation to think boldly, build purposefully, and discover what it truly means to solve a problem that matters.
Cedar Hill Preparatory School is a Preschool to Grade 8 International Baccalaureate Candidate school located at 152 Cedar Grove Lane, Somerset, NJ. For more information, visit cedarhillprep.com or call 732-356-5400.