Students from the Rich Township High School STEM Campus earned top honors at a recent REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition hosted at the school. The event brought together 21 teams from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan to compete in challenges that tested drone piloting, autonomous programming, and teamwork.
Team 60466C—Aaron Greene, Mark Lopez, and Marcus Fefee—finished ranked first overall and, alongside their alliance partner, won the Teamwork Mission Champion Award. The competition required students to demonstrate advanced technical skills, including programming drones using block coding and Python, navigating complex flight challenges, and troubleshooting hardware and software issues under time pressure.
The team is coached by Ms. Freelain through the MER Robotics and Drones Club, where students meet regularly to build technical expertise and collaboration skills aligned with careers in robotics, aviation, and engineering. With their strong performance at the tournament, the team has advanced to the North Central Aerial Drone High School Competition on May 15, 2026, where they will compete against top teams from across the region.