Organization Announces Award Competition Winners; Sachem, Southold and William Floyd High School Teams Earn Eligibility to Advance to Championship

(Kings Park, New York) — Thousands of contestants, mentors, sponsors and fans converged on Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on April 1 and 2, 2016 for the 17th annual SBPLI (School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.) Long Island Regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC). Students from 51 high schools from Long Island, greater New York City and Brazil participated in this year’s game, “FIRST STRONGHOLDSM,” which some are touting as one of the best competitions yet. The event culminated with awards and honors for areas such as design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

Three Long Island teams earned one of five eligible positions at the FRC Championship, being held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, April 27-30. The advancing teams include Team #287 (Floyd) from William Floyd High School; Team #263 (Sachem Aftershock) from Sachem High School; and Team #870 (Team R.I.C.E) from Southold High School. Team #1796, the RoboTigers, from Queens Vocational & Technical High School in Long Island City took home the coveted Chairman’s Award, which is the most prestigious award of the event and recognizes the team that embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and best represents a model for other teams to emulate. Team #1156 (Under Control) from Marista Pio XII High School in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil secured the final of the five advancement positions.

“All of our participating teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, gracious professionalism™ and critical thinking, and the winners truly went above and beyond to overcome the challenges of the competition,” said Debra Winter and Dave Johnson, FRC Regional Co-Directors for SBPLI, which has presented the Long Island Regional FIRST Competition for all 17 years. “The fun and excitement of the competition was evident as many students, professional mentors, school groups and community members got caught up in the spirit of the event. Hundreds cheered on their favorite teams as engineering and technology at work surpassed the excitement of a championship athletic event.”

With the hope of winning one of several coveted awards (noted below), high school students worked with professional mentors to design, program and build a robot over a six-week timeframe using a “kit of parts,” which consists of some materials that can be used in whichever way teams would like and a standard set of rules that helps teams manage quantity, type and the price of their materials. The students gathered to compete with their robots in FIRST STRONGHOLD, in which two Alliances of three teams each attempted to score as many points as possible by breaching the opponents’ defenses and shooting boulders through goals in the opposing tower. During the last 20 seconds of the Quest, robots could attempt to surround the castle and scale the opposing tower to capture it and gain additional points.

SBPLI named John Loonam, a former longtime employee at Northrop Grumman and a past Board Member of SBPLI, as its Volunteer of the Year. Tony Kryl, Team Mentor, Westhampton Beach High School FIRST® Robotics Team #3171 “HURRICANES,” received the Regional Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Carley Rowe of Smithtown High School FIRST Robotics Team #810 “The Mechanical Bulls” and Celine Khoo of Ossining High School FIRST Robotics Team #4122 “Ossining O-Bots.” The Fred Breithut Award was presented to Nick Liuzzi of Seaford High School FIRST® Robotics Team #4567 “The Phi-Kings.”

The Full List of Winners of the 2016 SBPLI Long Island Regional FRC Awards Include:

AWARD

TEAM #

TEAM NAME/SCHOOL

HOMETOWN

Musical Theme Award

4567

The Phi-Kings/Seaford

Seaford, New York

Imagery Award in honor of
Jack Kamen

4006

CIBorgs/Central Islip

Central Islip, New York

Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award

287

Floyd/William Floyd

Mastic Beach, New York

Xerox Creativity Award

3171

Hurricanes/Westhampton Beach

Westhampton Beach, New York

Delphi Excellence in Engineering Award

810

The Mechanical Bulls/Smithtown

Smithtown, New York

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award

28

Pierson Whalers/Pierson

Sag Harbor, New York

Judge’s Award

4122

Ossining O-Bots/Ossining

Ossining, New York

General Motors Industrial Design Award

1468

Hicksville J-Birds/Hicksville

Hicksville, New York

Motorola Quality Award

1156

Under Control/Marista Pio XII

Novo Hamburgo, Brazil

Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism

329

Mohawks/Patchogue-Medford

Medford, New York

Chrysler Team Spirit Award

527

Red Dragons/Plainedge

North Massapequa, New York

Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award

2638

Rebels/Great Neck South

Great Neck, New York

Regional Finalist #1

870

TEAM R.I.C.E./Southold

Southold, New York

Regional Finalist #2

329

Mohawks/Patchogue-Medford

Medford, New York

Regional Finalist #3

2875

CyberHawks/Cold Spring Harbor

Cold Spring Harbor, New York

Regional Winner #1**

1156

Under Control/Marista Pio XII

Novo Hamburgo, Brazil

Regional Winner #2**

287

Floyd/William Floyd

Mastic Beach, New York

Regional Winner #3**

263

Sachem Aftershock/Sachem

Lake Ronkonkoma, New York

Regional Engineering Inspiration Award**

870

TEAM R.I.C.E./Southold

Southold, New York

Regional Chairman’s Award* **

1796

RoboTigers/Queens Vocational & Technical

Long Island City, New York

 

* The Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious award of the event and recognizes the team that embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and best represents a model for other teams to emulate.

** These teams are eligible to participate in the FRC Championship that will take place April 27-30 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO.

This year’s sponsors included Hofstra University, FESTO Corporation Stony Brook University, Northrop Grumman , SCOPE Education Services, US Army,  BAE Systems , PSEG Long Island, Cablevision, Farmingdale State College, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Schenck Trebel Corporation and School Construction Consultants, Inc., among others.

SBPLI is currently seeking local businesses for sponsorship opportunities for the 2017 Long Island Regional. For more information, please visit www.sbpli.org.

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*** Photos are attached and available upon request.

**** Pictures of winning teams and award winners are available via e-mail and upon request.

***** Descriptions of the awards and their criteria are available upon request.

About School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.

School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) was founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses that would provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce. Over 100 partnerships have been formed. In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition to Long Island, in which eight high school teams participated. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition has grown to over 50 teams competing each year. SBPLI also hosts Long Island’s annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo, in which almost 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. For more information, visit www.sbpli.org.

 

About FIRST®

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST®(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and more than $18 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC®) for Grades 7-12; FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) for Grades 4-8; and Junior FIRST® LEGO® League (Jr.FLL®) for Grades K-3. Gracious Professionalism® is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

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FIRST® and FRC® are registered trademarks, and Gracious Professionalism™ is a common law trademark, of the United States Foundation For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (U.S. FIRST).