On March 18 and 19, over 10,000 spectators gathered at Hofstra Arena, Hofstra University in Hempstead to watch 40 teams of high school students compete at the Long Island Regional competition to earn a spot at the FIRST USA Championship to be held April 21-23 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta GA. Several teams received honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.

"The winners demonstrated tremendous teamwork, professionalism and strategic thinking to overcome the challenges of the competition," said Fred Breithut, President of the 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 that solves a problem using a kit of parts and a standard set of rules. The students gathered to compete with their robots in this year's game, "Triple Play" which took place on a playing field with a mix of robot and human players. Robots earned points by placing tetras onto triangular goals.

Winners of the Long Island Regional awards include:

Award
School

Regional Chairman's Award (highest award of the competition)
Hauppauge High School**

Regional Woodie Flowers Award
Neil Heft, Lindenhurst High School, Mentor from EDO Corp.

Engineering Inspiration Award (second highest award of the competition)
Various Eastern CT high schools and home schooled/mentored by the US Coast Guard Academy**

Regional Winners Alliance
Plainedge High School** Hauppauge High School** Southold High School**

Regional Finalist Alliance
Deer Park High School Bay Shore High School Mount Sinai High School

Highest Rookie Seed
Aviation High School

Rookie All Star Award (highest rookie award)
Baldwin Senior High School**

Rookie Inspiration Award
Aviation High School

Daimler Chrysler Team Spirit Award
Miami Coral Park High School, Miami, FL

Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award
Mass Academy of Math and Science

General Motors Industrial Design Award
Sachem High School

Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award
Miller Place High School

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Entrepreneurship
West Islip High School

Motorola Quality Award
Plainview Old Bethpage High School

Xerox Creativity Award
Lindenhurst High School

Imagery Award
Miami Coral Park High School, Miami, FL

RadioShack Innovation in Control Award
Smithtown High School

Web Site Design Award
U.S. Coast Guard Academy area high schools

Judges' Award
Roosevelt High School

Autodesk Visualization Award-Regional
Newton High School, Elmhurst, New York