By Zoya Batliwala for The Montgomery News | June 8, 2026
Artifacts offer insight into history, specifically into the lives of people who are no longer around to tell their version of their stories.
At the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, thousands of such items from the Palisades form a growing archive, one that helps “bring to life marginalized people and provide new insights into their life ways and daily struggles.”
From left to right: Neerav Marrey, Suchay Bagawadi Ellur, Priyansh Makhija, and Anay Khurana in front of the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.
These are the words of Susan Orr, who works for the State Museum, and has experience with ethnographic objects from North and South America.
She writes about the Legends of Skunk Hollow and a man named Jack Earnest who “bought his freedom from enslavement from a Bergen County farmer and purchased five acres of land in the Palisades in 1806.
“For the next 100 years, this community was a refuge for freed African Americans.”
How does she know that?
The experiences Earnest endured are found in objects. By raking among ruins and reviewing historical records, researchers and anthropologists can learn a person’s stories.
Unfortunately, many artifacts in New Jersey remain un-cataloged. The existing records, sometimes just notes handwritten on paper and stored in a drawer, require extensive time to maintain and are vulnerable to loss or deterioration.
The process of organizing history, it turns out, can be as fragile as the objects themselves.
Montgomery robotics students were given the following challenge: Work hand-in-hand with archaeologists so they are able to “have fun” and “end exhaustion from writing thousands of artifacts,” said middle schooler Anay Khurana.
He and his team developed a system they call ARCH-ID.
The Robo Fanatics team consists of Priyansh Makhija, Neerav Marrey, Anay Khurana, Abhinav Ravishankar, Suchay Bagawadi Ellur (all in 7th grade), and Kayson Qian (8th grade) led by coach Kapil Khurana and mentor Ansh Khurana.
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They began developing the project over the past year when preparing for the regional and state robotics competitions.
Top (L to R): Anay Khurana, Neerav Marrey, and Abhinav Ravishankar. Bottom: Priyansh Makhija, Suchay Bagawadi Ellur, and Kayson Qian after winning the NJ North FMA-FLL (First Mid Atlantic-First Lego League) Challenge.
Tasked with the theme of archaeology, they began consulting experts such as Susan Orr, surveying local communities, and contacting 200 museums worldwide to better understand issues archaeologists are facing.
Their idea solidified during an ordinary trip to the grocery store. Observing how barcode scanners instantly retrieve product information through one scan, the team envisioned a similar system for artifacts.
ARCH-ID assigns artifacts QR codes linked to digital records containing their origins, descriptions, and historical context. Archaeologists can manage and edit information through a secure, restricted platform, while visitors can scan codes to access curated details about the objects before them.
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Designing the system required solving technical challenges, particularly around data security and access. The team developed a model that limits editing capabilities to authorized users while maintaining a public- facing interface for visitors to reference for research. They also began exploring broader applications, including ways to support museum funding through subscription-based access.
The project earned recognition in regional and state competitions. Moving forward, the team will implement ARCH-ID, at the NJ State Museum, with potential collaborations extending to institutions in India and the United Kingdom.
