School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) announced its award winners at the 11th annual LI FIRST Regional Robotics Competition at Hofstra University's David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex (Arena) in Hempstead, New York. The event was held on March 26-27.

More than 1,200 students from 48 high schools from Long Island, the New York metropolitan area, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland participated in the competition. Teams received honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.

"All teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, professionalism and strategic thinking, but these winners went above and beyond to overcome the challenges of the competition," said Fred Breithut, Founder & Chairman of School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, sponsors of the Long Island Regional FIRST Competition. "The fun and excitement of the competition was evident as many students, professional mentors, school groups and community members caught the spirit and came to cheer 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, high school students worked with professional mentors to design and build a robot over a six-week timeframe using a kit of parts and a standard set of rules. The students gathered to compete with their robots in this year's game, "Breakaway," in which two alliances of three teams competed on a 27-by-54-foot playing field with bumps, attempting to earn points by collecting soccer balls in goals. Additional bonus points are earned for each robot and suspended in air and not touching the field at the end of the match.

Winners of the SBPLI, Inc. Regional awards include:

Award

Winner

Regional Chairman's Award* (Highest award of the robotics competition)

Team 2638, Great Neck South High School, Great Neck, NY

Reginal Engineering Inspiration Award (Second highest award of the robotics competition)

Team 533, Lindenhurst Senior High School, Lindenhurst, NY

Regional Winner #1

Team 271, Bay Shore High School, Bay Shore, NY

Regional Winner #2

Team 263, Sachem Central School District, Lake Ronkonkoma, NY

Regional Winner #3

Team 358, Hauppauge High School, Hauppauge, NY

Regional Finalist #1

Team 514, Miller Place Schools, Miller Place, NY

Regional Finalist #2

Team 3171, Westhampton Beach High School, Westhampton Beach, NY

Regional Finalist #3

Team 870, Southold Junior Senior High School, Southold, NY

Regional Finalist #4

Team 1546, Baldwin Senior High School, Baldwin, NY

Chrysler Team Spirit Award

Team 564, Longwood High School, Middle Island, NY

Delphi Engineering Excellence Award

Team 271, Bay Shore High School, Bay Shore, NY

General Motors Industrial Design Award

Team 870, Southold Junior Senior High School, Southold, NY

Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism

Team 358, Hauppauge High School, Hauppauge, NY

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award

Team 1601, Aviation High School, Long Island City, NY

Motorola Quality Award

Team 1803, Paul D. Schreiber High School, Port Washington, NY

Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award

Team 2641, Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School, Pittsburgh, PA

Xerox Creativity Award

Team 1606, Division Ave. High School, Levittown, NY

Highest Rookie Seed Award

Team 3137, Connetquot Central School District, Bohemia, NY

Imagery Award

Team 1626, St. Joseph's High School, Metuchen, NJ

Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award

Team 2638, Great Neck South High School, Great Neck, NY

Rookie All Star Award

Team 3137, Connetquot Central School District, Bohemia, NY

Rookie Inspiration Award

Team 3171, Westhampton Beach High School, Westhampton, Beach, NY

Website Award

Team 353, Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School, Plainview, NY

Judges Award

Team 884, Malverne High School, Malverne, NY

Musical Performance Award

Team 527, Plainedge High School, No. Massapequa, NY

Coopertition(tm) Award

Team 271, Bay Shore High School, Bay Shore, NY

 

* 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.

SBPLI also announced the winners of its first Fred Breithut Scholarship Award. The winners were Robert Drenckhahn of the Lindenhurst High School Robotics Team #533 and Julia Stanwycks of the Walt Whitman High School Robotics Team #2161. SBPLI and Farmingdale State College provided funding for the scholarship. Both students will go to Farmingdale State College on this scholarship in pursuing careers in engineering, science or technology.

SBPLI named Lorraine Greenwald, Dean of Farmingdale State College's School of Business, and Pat Hughes, a retired schoolteacher from the Miller Place School District, as its Volunteers of the Year. The Fred Breithut Award went to Jonathan Simon of Longwood High School Robotics Team #564. Alan Rappaport, mentor for the Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School Robotics Team #353, received the Regional Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean's List Finalist Award were Brian Jaworski of the Walt Whitman High School Robotics Team #2161 and Nick Panzarino of the Westhampton Beach High School Robotics Team #3171.

Major sponsors for this year's competition were SBPLI, Inc., The Office of New York State Senator Owen Johnson, Gershow Recycling, FESTO Corporation, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Hofstra University, Farmingdale State College, Stony Brook University and DeVry College of NY.