Following its debut national podium finish in 2025, the Newington Robotics Club has expanded rapidly throughout 2026, scaling from an initial trial of 13 students into an established engineering program of nearly 60 members meeting weekly in W6.
Founded in mid-2025 by Year 12 student and Captain Sunny Zhang, the initiative was built on a straightforward principle: students must actively create opportunities rather than wait for them to appear. While Newington held an established tradition in engineering through programs like F1 in Schools, robotics was created to introduce a dedicated pathway in mechatronics and autonomous systems. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape software, robotics provides the critical bridge between digital code and the physical world, training students to build machines that navigate and interact with reality autonomously.
Throughout 2026, the club significantly broadened its technical scope. The team transitioned its core hardware to modern SPIKE Prime architecture and made its competitive debut in VEX Robotics, exposing members to more complex mechanical fabrication, motor logic, and autonomous control. This technical step up translated directly to the competition floor, with Newington squads securing multiple top 10 finishes at the 2026 RoboCup Junior NSW State Championships.
By taking students through the complete engineering cycle of rapid prototyping, debugging Python under tight competition timers, and adapting between rounds, the club has built a serious technical footprint at the College that will continue to prepare future students for real-world engineering and technology careers.