by Davy James, Staff Writer
Some students at South Brunswick High School enjoyed unprecedented success last month taking top honors in a state technology competition, but are now in need of help from the community in order to take their projects to the next level.
The school’s Architectural Design Club competed for and won the first ever such honors for SBHS at the Technology Student Association State Conference and Competition on March 31 at The College of New Jersey.
The team took first place over 45 other schools statewide in the category of Architectural Model for designing a model emergency medical clinic and took second place in the category of Radio Controlled Transportation for designing a robotic mail sorter.
”We put a lot of hard work into this competition and it paid off,” said club president Tyler Buchinski, a senior. “You go into this competition because you enjoy doing the work. But when you get a chance to succeed, it’s just overwhelming.”
The students who worked on the architectural model have been at it since the beginning of the school year. They designed the medical center by consulting professional architects and examining other medical centers for ideas and inspiration.
The students wanted to design a clinic that would offer a soothing environment to patients.
”We used a lot of therapeutic colors so the patients might feel like they’re in a clinic but they’re not enclosed,” said junior Safa Aktar. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t too big and we really took into consideration that it wasn’t a hospital but a medical center. It has a very comfortable environment for patients.”
Students Alyssa Maurin and Cody Goldstein said the moment they heard they’d won first place was something they’ll never forget.
”We were just speechless,” Alyssa said. “We couldn’t believe it at all. You should’ve seen the looks on our faces.”
The students who worked on the Radio Controlled Transportation project said they spent countless hours designing and building their robot. Seniors Rohith Gowda and Ryan Steinkerchner and junior Brian Dixon said they didn’t get much of an opportunity to practice with their robot as they put the finishing touches on it the morning of the competition.
The students are proud of the fact that they weren’t given blueprints for the design and the entire robot came from their own heads, building it out of scrap material. The machine is designed to pick up mail from the floor and is then driven to place the mail in bins, thus requiring two students to control the machine simultaneously.
”When we showed up there were other teams who had things we just never thought of,” Rohith said. “When we won we were seriously shocked.”
The teams hope to take their projects to the national TSA competition in Denver, which takes place in June, but to do so they need to raise $6,400. They’re hoping for donations from local businesses and corporations to accomplish their goal.
”This is a way for us to see other student architects from across the country and gain experience from them,” said senior Daniel Huaman. “It would be an incredible feeling to be in the same room with other kids in the same contest.”
Ms. Sokol said the hard work of the students was reward enough for her, but she would love to see them get the chance to compete at nationals.
”I’m proud of these students in whatever they do, so this is just icing on the cake,” she said. “They worked hard and had great vision.”
The students said they plan to hold some fundraisers leading up to the national competition and plan on approaching local businesses for donations. Tyler said it would be tough to raise what they need due to the economy, but they remain hopeful.
Those who wish to donate can contact Ms. Sokol at [email protected]. Donations also can be dropped off at the high school to her attention.

