Students from more than 20 participating Long Island high schools took part in the Fourth Annual Deer Park Invitational, a preseason robotics competition sponsored by the School Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI), \ FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and the Deer Park Union Free School District. The daylong competition fostered goodwill amongst the students, working together as they solved intricate problems and engaged in friendly competition.

Of the 22 teams competing in the intellectually stimulating event, Cold Spring Harbor, Bethpage and The Wheatley School, the pre-rookie teams, which used borrowed robots. At the invitational, teams were aligned together to navigate their 135-pound robots around a racetrack with an overpass, have their robots and track balls cross a finish line on the track, and position the track balls on the overpass at the end of the match.

School administrators and parents were on hand to cheer on the competitors. Winners of the invitational were the three-team alliance of Team 271 from Bay Shore, Team 1803 from Port Washington and Team 2875 from Cold Spring Harbor. Finalists included Team 353 from Plainview-Old Bethpage, Team 1546 from Baldwin and Team 2847 from Sayville.

"We planned this event not only as a competition about the design and building of sophisticated robots, but as an opportunity to create an atmosphere whereby students can also develop maturity, professionalism, teamwork and mentoring skills, thereby enriching their lives and pointing them in the direction of an engineering career. We were not disappointed," said Fred Breithut, founder of SBPLI.

“It was wonderful to have been able to provide an opportunity to include rookie teams, giving them a chance to gain practical experience, while competing with veteran teams,” said Janet Anderson, director of the LI FIRST robotics program. “It is always our hope that students will be inspired to turn their affinity for science and math into a career path, leading them to study engineering, technology or science in college.”