Category: FIRST® Long Island

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island presented its 2023 Long Island Regional #2 on March 24-25 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex in Hempstead. Forty-seven teams from Long Island, New York City, upstate New York, Chinese Taipei, the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom and India took part in the two-day FIRST^® Robotics Competition. This event culminated with awards and honors for areas such as design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

The winner of the 2023 Long Island Regional #2 was the three-team alliance made up of “StuyPulse” (Team #694) from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, “TEAM R.I.C.E.” (Team #870) from Southold Jr. Sr. High School and “The PSIcotics” (Team #533) from Lindenhurst High School. “RoboTigers” (Team #1796) from Queens Technical High School took home the coveted FIRST Impact Award, which is the event’s most prestigious award. It recognizes the team that best embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and that best represents a model for other teams to emulate. “Regal Eagles” (Team #2869) from Bethpage High School won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. These teams are now eligible to compete at the 2023 FIRST Championship presented by BAE Systems at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas from April 19-22.

Tia Singh, Team Mentor, Team #1796 “RoboTigers” from Queens Technical High School, was named a Finalist for the Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Kali Nilsen of Team #533 “The PSIcotics” from Lindenhurst High School and Laura Lerebours of Team #3624 “Thundercolts” of Half Hollow Hills High School West & Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills.

“This was one of the best Long Island Regionals we’ve experienced,” says Bertram Dittmar, Executive Director, FIRST Long Island. “All participating teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, gracious professionalism^™ and critical thinking. The fun and excitement of the competition was evident as many students and mentors got caught up in the spirit of the event. Participants, volunteers, and sponsors had the opportunity to experience the beauty of engineering and technology combined with the excitement of a competitive event.”

As a FIRST^® Robotics Competition, the Long Island Regional featured teams of high school-aged students from across Long Island, the New York metropolitan area and even around the world competing in a cooperative tournament-style robotics competition. Guided by their mentors, students rely on their skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to compete for honors and recognition that reward design excellence, competitive play and sportsmanship. This high-energy event further emphasizes the importance of high-impact partnerships between students, universities, businesses, and communities.

This year’s competition was dubbed CHARGED UP^SM Presented by Haas, in which two alliances are invited to process game pieces to bring energy to their community. The alliances do this by retrieving their game pieces from substations and placing them into the grid. Human players provide the game pieces to the robots from the substations. In the last moments of each match, alliance robots race to dock or engage with their charge station.

The Full List of Winners of the 2023 FIRST Long Island Regional #2 Awards Include:

AWARD	TEAM #	TEAM NAME	SCHOOL/TOWN
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen	3624	ThunderColts	Half Hollow Hills High Schools West & East/Dix Hills
Innovation in Control Award	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/ Southold
Autonomous Award sponsored by Ford	594	StuyPulse	Stuyvesant High School/New York, NY
Quality Award	871	Robotechs	West Islip High School/West Islip
Gracious Professionalism Award	263	Aftershock	Sachem High Schools North and East/Ronkonkoma
Team Spirit Award	564	Longwood Robotics	Longwood High School/ Middle Island
Team Sustainability Award	353	POBots	Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School/Plainview
Highest Rookie Seed ***	9016	Syosset Braves Robotics	Syosset High School/Syosset
Rookie Inspiration Award ***	9016	Syosset Braves Robotics	Syosset High School/Syosset
Rookie All Star Award ***	9184	Zeta	Sevenoaks School/ Sevenoaks, UK
Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors	1468	Hicksville J-Birds	Hicksville High School/ Hicksville
Judges’ Award	1880	Warriors of East Harlem	East Harlem Tutorial Program/New York, NY
Regional Finalist #1	329	Mohawks	Patchogue-Medford High School/Medford
Regional Finalist #2	5736	Kingsmen Robotics	Kings Park High School/ Kings Park
Regional Finalist #3	5099	Northport Robotics	Northport High School/ Northport
Regional Winner #1**	694	StuyPulse	Stuyvesant High School/New York, NY
Regional Winner #2**	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold High School/ Southold
Regional Winner #3**	533	The PSIcotics	Lindenhurst High School/ Lindenhurst
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award**	2869	Regal Eagles	Bethpage High School/ Bethpage
Regional FIRST Impact Award*  **	1796	RoboTigers	Queens Technical High School/Queens, NY

* The FIRST Impact 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 2023 FIRST^® Championship presented by BAE Systems at either the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas on April 19-22.

*** Denotes a rookie team.

Please Note: Photos of all Award Winners and Advancing Teams are available upon request.

For more information on FIRST Long Island, please visit www.firstlongisland.org.

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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 $30 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST^® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST^® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; FIRST^® LEGO^® League for Grades 4-8; and FIRST^® LEGO^® League Jr. for Grades K-4. 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.firstinspires.org.

About FIRST^® Long Island
FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island is a fully volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the goal to enable students to find their passion, while preparing them for the challenges facing the 21st-century workforce.

FIRST Long Island evolved from School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI). In 1984, Frederick Breithut had the vision and foresight to recognize the need to develop partnerships between local high schools and businesses. His goal was to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce, which resulted in the formation of over 100 partnerships. To further this mission, in 1999, SBPLI partnered with FIRST to administer and bring FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) to Long Island. The Long Island robotics program featured just eight FRC high school teams culminating in the inaugural FRC Regional event. Since then, the FRC Long Island Regional has grown to two events with over 80 teams consisting of over 2,000 students competing each year. FIRST Long Island also hosts the FIRST LEGO League programs, in which over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, the FIRST Tech Challenge was added to its roster of programs, roughly impacting another 500 students on Long Island.

Now doing business as FIRST Long Island, the organization seeks to expand its impact by strengthening relationships with students, volunteers, and sponsors while helping to connect students and alumni to internship and job opportunities. FIRST Long Island continues to use robots as the vehicle to “build students“ and prepare them for the future.

For more information about the programs, find out about volunteering, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.firstlongisland.org.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island presented its 2023 Long Island Regional #1 on March 21-22 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex in Hempstead. Forty-five teams from Long Island, upstate New York, Chinese Taipei, India and Turkey took part in the three-day FIRST^® Robotics Competition. This event culminated with awards and honors for areas such as design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

The winner of the 2023 Long Island Regional #1 was the three-team alliance made up of “Ranger Robotics” (Team #3015) from Spencerport (NY) High School, “Hicksville J-Birds” (Team #1468) from Hicksville High School and “CyberHawks” (Team #2875) from Cold Spring Harbor High School. “Pierson Whalers” (Team #28) from Pierson Middle/High School in Sag Harbor took home the coveted FIRST Impact Award, which is the event’s most prestigious award. It recognizes the team that best embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and that best represents a model for other teams to emulate. “Rebel Robotics” (Team #2638) from Great Neck South High School won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. These teams are now eligible to compete at the 2023 FIRST Championship presented by BAE Systems at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas from April 19-22.

Ellen Kressner, Team Mentor, Team #2638 “Rebel Robotics” from Great Neck South High School, was named a Finalist for the Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Shaan Merchant of Team #2638 “Rebel Robotics” from Great Neck South High School and Abigail Brennan of Team #810 “The Mechanical Bulls” of Smithtown High School.

“This was one of the best Long Island Regionals we’ve experienced,” says Bertram Dittmar, Executive Director, FIRST Long Island. “All participating teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, gracious professionalism^™ and critical thinking. The fun and excitement of the competition was evident as many students and mentors got caught up in the spirit of the event. Participants, volunteers, and sponsors had the opportunity to experience the beauty of engineering and technology combined with the excitement of a competitive event.”

As a FIRST^® Robotics Competition, the Long Island Regional featured teams of high school-aged students from across Long Island, the New York metropolitan area and even around the world competing in a cooperative tournament-style robotics competition. Guided by their mentors, students rely on their skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to compete for honors and recognition that reward design excellence, competitive play and sportsmanship. This high-energy event further emphasizes the importance of high-impact partnerships between students, universities, businesses, and communities.

This year’s competition was dubbed CHARGED UP^SM Presented by Haas, in which two alliances are invited to process game pieces to bring energy to their community. The alliances do this by retrieving their game pieces from substations and placing them into the grid. Human players provide the game pieces to the robots from the substations. In the last moments of each match, alliance robots race to dock or engage with their charge station.

The Full List of Winners of the 2023 SBPLI Long Island Regional #1 Awards Include:

AWARD	TEAM #	TEAM NAME	SCHOOL/TOWN
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen	5659	Team Supreme	Bridgehampton School/ Bridgehampton
Innovation in Control Award	329	Mohawks	Patchogue Medford Sr. High School/Medford
Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation	5736	Kingsmen Robotics	Kings Park High School/ Kings Park
Excellence in Engineering Award	3015	Ranger Robotics	Spencerport High School/ Spencerport, NY
Autonomous Award sponsored by Ford	7539	Elev8	Dhirubhai Ambani International School/Mumbai, India
Quality Award	2872	CyberCats	Wheatley School/Old Westbury
Gracious Professionalism Award	2869	Regal Eagles	Bethpage High School/ Bethpage
Team Spirit Award	2265	Fe Maidens	Bronx High School of Science/Bronx
Team Sustainability Award	4122	Ossining O-Bots	Ossining High School/Ossining, NY
Rookie All Star Award ***	9016	Syosset Braves Robotics	Syosset High School/Syosset
Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors	7636	Robomania	National Experimental High School at Central Taiwan Science Park/Taichung City, Taiwan
Wildcard	9016	Syosset Braves Robotics ***	Syosset High School/ Syosset
Judges’ Award	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/Southold
Regional Finalist #1	2872	CyberCats	Wheatley School/Old Westbury
Regional Finalist #2	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/Southold
Regional Finalist #3	334	TechKnights	Brooklyn Technical High School/Brooklyn
Regional Winner #1**	3015	Ranger Robotics	Spencerport High School/Spencerport, NY
Regional Winner #2**	1468	Hicksville J-Birds	Hicksville High School/ Hicksville
Regional Winner #3**	2875	CyberHawks	Cold Spring Harbor Jr. Sr. HS/Cold Spring Harbor
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award**	2638	Rebel Robotics	Great Neck South High School/Great Neck
Regional FIRST Impact Award* **	28	Pierson Whalers	Pierson Middle High School/Sag Harbor

* The FIRST Impact 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 2023 FIRST^® Championship presented by BAE Systems at either the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas on April 19-22.

*** Denotes a rookie team.

Please Note: Photos of all Award Winners and Advancing Teams are available upon request.

For more information on FIRST Long Island, please visit www.firstlongisland.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 $30 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST^® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST^® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; FIRST^® LEGO^® League for Grades 4-8; and FIRST^® LEGO^® League Jr. for Grades K-4. 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.firstinspires.org.

About FIRST^® Long Island
FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island is a fully volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the goal to enable students to find their passion, while preparing them for the challenges facing the 21st-century workforce.

FIRST Long Island evolved from School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI). In 1984, Frederick Breithut had the vision and foresight to recognize the need to develop partnerships between local high schools and businesses. His goal was to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce, which resulted in the formation of over 100 partnerships. To further this mission, in 1999, SBPLI partnered with FIRST to administer and bring FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) to Long Island. The Long Island robotics program featured just eight FRC high school teams culminating in the inaugural FRC Regional event. Since then, the FRC Long Island Regional has grown to two events with over 80 teams consisting of over 2,000 students competing each year. FIRST Long Island also hosts the FIRST LEGO League programs, in which over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, the FIRST Tech Challenge was added to its roster of programs, roughly impacting another 500 students on Long Island.

Now doing business as FIRST Long Island, the organization seeks to expand its impact by strengthening relationships with students, volunteers, and sponsors while helping to connect students and alumni to internship and job opportunities. FIRST Long Island continues to use robots as the vehicle to “build students“ and prepare them for the future.

For more information about the programs, find out about volunteering, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.firstlongisland.org.

LIU Post Krasnoff Theater Hosted 42 Local FIRST Robotics Teams, Mentors, Advisors, and their Families, at the Annual Event 

[Brookville, New York] — The Krasnoff Theater at LIU Post was abuzz with anticipation on January 7 as students, educators and families from across Long Island joined together to participate in the unveiling of the 2023 FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) challenge, “CHARGED UP^SM  presented by Haas.” 

This annual event served as the official Kick-Off of the 2023 FIRST Long Island season and included a live broadcast announcing the game directly to the Krasnoff Theater. Two hundred eager FIRST Long Island students, parents and coaches listened with rapt attention to FIRST Founder Dean Kamen and FIRST CEO Chris Moore.

CHARGED UP presented by Haas is part of the 2023 FIRST season, FIRST ENERGIZE^SM, presented by Qualcomm. During this season, teams will reimagine the future of sustainable energy and power their ideas forward. 

In CHARGED UP presented by Haas, two competing alliances are invited to process game pieces to bring energy to their community. This is done by retrieving their game pieces from substations and scoring it into the grid. Human players provide the game pieces to the robots from the substations. In the final moments of each match, alliance robots race to dock or engage with their charge station.

Each match begins with a 15-second autonomous period, during which time alliance robots operate only on pre-programmed instructions to score points by leaving the community, retrieving and scoring game pieces onto the grid and docking on or engaging with their charge station. In the final two minutes and 15 seconds of the match, drivers take control of the robots and score points by continuing to retrieve and score their game pieces onto the grid and docking on or engaging with their charge station. The alliance with the highest score at the end of the match wins. 

“I am thrilled to be sharing this kickoff day with all of you around the world,” Mr. Moore said. “I hope the game we’re about to share charges you up to build some extraordinary machines. I can’t wait to see what you come up with this season.” 

Before the broadcast, members of FIRST Long Island, sponsors and others addressed the crowd, including FRC Regional Director Larry Toonkel, FIRST Long Island Executive Director Bertram Dittmar, Board Member Jeffrey Stern, and Frank Langro, who serves as a Board Member and represents longtime sponsor Festo Corporation. The presentation also featured LIU Post Spokesperson Reda Nacif El Alai, Smithtown Robotics Team #810 President John Galletta, and Tom Boehm, Software Engineer, Zebra Technologies (a sponsor of the Long Island Regionals and teams).

Immediately following the game reveal broadcast, the visiting teams received pertinent competition details, a first-hand look at the game field, and were handed their kits of parts.

“Leading up to the main competition, FIRST Long Island students will work with coaches and mentors to apply concepts of math, science and engineering to build their robots to meet the game’s objectives,” Mr. Toonkel said. “The FIRST Robotics Competition is not just about the design and build of sophisticated robots, our students will also learn important concepts such as teamwork, problem solving and healthy competition. Over the years, FIRST students from Long Island received more than $8 million in scholarships for higher education, in areas of science, technology, engineering, business or math in college. These students also develop maturity, professionalism and teamwork skills that enrich their lives. Our graduates often pursue careers with sponsoring companies, meeting the businesses’ needs for well-rounded, technically skilled employees.”

 

FIRST isn’t limited to Long Island; nearly 3,900 teams from all over the world came together as a community to share in the excitement of seeing the new game unveiled and will draw on this enthusiasm during the build period. During this time, all FIRST students will be asked to design, build, test and update their robots before the start of the 2023 competition, which includes more than 170 Regional and District events beginning in late February. These events measure the effectiveness of each robot’s design and control, the power of teamwork and the determination of participating students not only to win, but to learn and have fun. 

To learn more about CHARGED UP presented by Haas, visit https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/game-and-season. For more information on FIRST Long Island, visit www.firstlongisland.org.

 

CAPTION [photo1]:

Larry Toonkel, FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) Regional Director, FIRST Long Island, speaks during the FRC Kickoff at LIU Post’s Krasnoff Theater on January 7.

 

CAPTION [photo2]:

Bertram Dittmar, Executive Director, FIRST Long Island, addresses the audience at the FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff at LIU Post’s Krasnoff Theater on January 7.

 

CAPTION [photo3]:

Members of the Syosset High School Team #9016 “Syosset Braves Robotics” share their excitement after learning more about this year’s challenge, “CHARGED UP℠ presented by Haas,” during the FIRST Robotics Competition at LIU Post’s Krasnoff Theater on January 7.

 

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* Images are attached.

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 $50 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; and FIRST® LEGO® League for Grades PreK-8. 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.firstinspires.org.

 

 

About FIRST Long Island

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island is a fully volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses. His goal was to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce, which resulted in the formation of over 100 partnerships. In 1999, the inaugural FIRST Long Island robotics tournament featured just eight FIRST® Robotics Competition high school teams. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST® Robotics Competition has grown to two events with over 80 teams competing each year. FIRST® Long Island also hosts its annual FIRST® LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the FIRST® LEGO League Junior Expos, in which over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, the FIRST® Tech Challenge was added to its roster of programs. For more information about the programs, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.firstlongisland.org.

Syosset and Baldwin Robotics Teams Receive Kits of Parts

Students from Syosset and Baldwin High Schools attended this year’s kickoff event for the 2023 FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC), sponsored by FIRST Long Island and hosted by LIU Post. They gathered with more than 40 participating high schools on Saturday, January 7 at LIU Post’s Krasnoff Theater for a presentation and simulcast broadcast from New Hampshire. After the presentation, each team received a kit of parts, which they will use along with other materials to build a 120-pound robot for the upcoming   to be held on March 20-26 at Hofstra University.

For more information about FIRST Long Island and the annual FIRST Robotics Competition, visit http://www.sbpli.org.

Twenty-One Teams Participated in Postseason Tournament

[HAUPPAUGE, NEW YORK] — On October 29, twenty-one teams from Long Island competed in the Tenth Annual Half Hollow Hills Invitational at Half Hollow Hills West High School in Dix Hills. The Invitational was presented by the Half Hollow Hills School District, with support from FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island.

This year’s winning alliance consisted of the following teams: Team #263 “Sachem Aftershock” from Sachem High School, Team #870 “Team R.I.C.E.” from Southold High School, and Team #2869 “Bethpage Regal Eagles” from Bethpage High School. The runners-up were Team #3171 “Hurricanes” from Westhampton Beach Senior High School, Team #5736 “Kingsmen” from Kings Park High School, and Team #6423 “Iron Patriots” from Ward Melville High School.

This year’s challenge was RAPID REACT^SM presented by The Boeing Company, in which two competing alliances are invited to process cargo for transportation. Each alliance is assigned a cargo color to process by retrieving their assigned cargo and scoring it into the hub. Human players assist the cargo retrieval and scoring efforts from within their terminals. In the final moments of each match, alliance robots race to engage with their hangar to prepare for transport.

For more information, visit www.firstlongisland.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 $50 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST^® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST^® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; and FIRST^® LEGO^® League for Grades PreK-8. 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.firstinspires.org

 

 

About FIRST Long Island

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island is a fully volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses. His goal was to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce, which resulted in the formation of over 100 partnerships. In 1999, the inaugural FIRST Long Island robotics tournament featured just eight FIRST^® Robotics Competition high school teams. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST^® Robotics Competition has grown to two events with over 80 teams competing each year. FIRST^® Long Island also hosts its annual FIRST^® LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the FIRST^® LEGO League Junior Expos, in which over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, the FIRST^® Tech Challenge was added to its roster of programs. For more information about the programs, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.firstlongisland.org.