Building tomorrow's engineers today
Our story
We're the Warhawks — Team 2554, the robotics team at John P. Stevens High School in Edison, NJ.
Every January, FIRST announces a new game, and we get six weeks to build a robot that can play it. Students do all of it: the design, the machining, the wiring, the code. Six weeks later, a competition-ready robot rolls out of the lab.
Most people join knowing nothing about robots. You pick a subteam, learn from the students who did it last year, and before long you're the one teaching.
Our history
We've been at this since 2008 — 19 straight seasons in the FIRST Mid-Atlantic district.
The team started as rookies at the New York City Regional in 2008 and won a Website Award there the next year. Since then we've grown from a handful of students into four subteams and a long list of alumni.
2022 was a big year. VisualEyes won Altice USA's Excellence in Innovation Award, Optimum gave us their Inspiration Award, and Cheddar News ran a segment on the team.
Lately the results on the field have caught up too. We were District Event finalists in 2025, picked up a Quality Award the same season, and took home the Gracious Professionalism Award in 2026.
The next chapter is already underway. A new game reveals in January, a new class of students is learning the tools, and the goal is what it has always been: build a better robot than last year, and leave the team stronger than we found it.
Mechanical
The hands that build the robot.
The Mechanical Team is in charge of creating a prototype and the physical construction of the robot. They train new members to safely use power tools and handle build equipment to create a practice field to use before competition. They also design components such as drive chains, the chassis, and shooters.
Electrical
The nervous system connecting power to motion.
The Electrical Team organizes and puts together the electrical board. The electrical board essentially connects the power and the programming to the motors and other parts of the robot so that it may perform all the desired functions!
Programming
The code that makes it think.
The Programming Team creates and runs a program in Java that allows students to control the robot. Programming code directs the robot to carry out a specific job within the limits of its hardware but also has to take into account the limits of human ability in order to program AI for competitions.
Operations
Everything around the robot.
The Operations Team runs the rest: outreach events like Hack JPS and STEM Day, sponsorships and funding, social media, and the mentoring programs that bring new students into engineering.