NEWBURGH - So they didn't win in London, but the Newburgh Free Academy's Concept Vehicle Racing Team has already raised the bar when it comes to competition.

The team, along with several advisors, took their electric car across the pond for their first-ever international race - the 2016 Shell Eco-marathon Drivers' World Championship, which ran from June 30-July 2.

"We ended up placing 16th out of the 500 global participants," said lead faculty adviser Matthew Schweizer.

"Our competition was fierce; some very prestigious Engineering Universities participated. The fact that we were able to compete against this high caliber is a great accomplishment in itself. The students who traveled to London gained real-world engineering and problem-solving experience that they hope to expand upon in their future college or career pathways," he added.

Schweizer, who teaches architecture, engineering, and design at the NFA main campus, was unable to make the trip with the team because he was needed at home. His wife, Melanie, gave birth to the couple's daughter, Eden. The infant was born June 30, the very day that the championship began.

"She is very healthy and the most beautiful baby," said Schweizer, who is already thinking about how to redesign the team's vehicles to improve aerodynamics and reduce drag

Pauline Liu

Lecture on loyalists in the American Revolution

The role of Newburgh in the American Revolution still gets a lot of attention more than two hundred years after that war ended.

So much so, that sometimes we might forget that not all colonists were revolutionaries. Some people living here back then remained loyal to the British Crown. This Saturday, there’s an opportunity to learn about them.

At 1 p.m., at Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh, Kieran O’Keefe will discuss “The Loyalists of Newburgh during the American Revolution.”

Her talk will look at the origins and composition of the Loyalist community; consider their war experiences, including persecution they faced from Newburgh’s rebels; and examine the Loyalists’ post-war exile in Canada.

The event is presented by the Friends of the State Historic Sites of the Hudson Highlands.

The talk is free, with standard admission to the headquarters ($4 for adults, $3 for seniors and students, 12 and under are free).

Admission also includes a tour of Hasbrouck House, the fieldstone house where General George Washington made his headquarters for about 16 months in 1782-83; and a visit to the museum, which includes many artifacts from the period.

Michael Randall