School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI), Inc. DBA FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island presented its 2022 SBPLI Long Island Regional #1 on March 21-23 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex in Hempstead. Thirty-nine teams from Long Island, upstate New York, Brazil and India 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 2022 SBPLI Long Island Regional #1 was the three-team alliance made up of “Team R.I.C.E” (Team #870) from Southold High School, “HURRICANES” (Team #3171) from Westhampton Beach High School and “CyberCats” (Team #2872) from The Wheatley School in Old Westbury. “Rebel Robotics” (Team #2638) from Great Neck South High School took home the coveted Chairman’s 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. “R Factor” (Team #6024) from Mumbai, India won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. These teams are now eligible to compete at the 2022 FIRST Championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas from April 20-23.

 

Samuel Kruse, Team Mentor, Team #5736 “Kingsmen Robotics” from Kings Park High School, was named a Finalist for the Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Stuti Bhatia of Team #6024 “R Factor” from Mumbai, India and Ashley Snyder of Team #527 “Red Dragons” from Plainedge High School in Massapequa.

 

“This was one of the best SBPLI Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competitions we’ve experienced,” says Bertram Dittmar, Executive Director, SBPLI. “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 SBPLI 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 RAPID REACT^SM presented by The Boeing Company. In RAPID REACT, 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. 

 

The Full List of Winners of the 2022 SBPLI Long Island Regional #1 Awards Include:

 

AWARD	TEAM #	TEAM NAME	SCHOOL/TOWN
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen	5016	Huntington Robotics	Huntington High School/Huntington
Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award	2872	CyberCats	The Wheatley School/Old Westbury
Xerox Creativity Award	3171	HURRICANES	Westhampton Beach High School/Westhampton Beach
Delphi Excellence in Engineering Award	1468	Hicksville J-Birds	Hicksville High School/Hicksville
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award	7567	SESI SENAI SÃO PAULO OCTOPUS	Centro Educacional SESI 296/Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
General Motors Industrial Design Award	358	Robotic Eagles	Hauppauge High School/ Hauppauge
Ford Autonomous Award	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/ Southold
Motorola Solutions Foundation Quality Award	2487	Mechanical Animals	Sayville High School/Sayville
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism	2027	Robotic Dragons	Westbury High School/Westbury
FCA Foundation Team Spirit Award	6423	Ward Melville Iron Patriots	Ward Melville Sr. High School/East Setauket
Judges’ Award	2869	Regal Eagles	Bethpage High School/Bethpage
Regional Finalist #1	2638	Rebel Robotics	Great Neck South High School/Great Neck
Regional Finalist #2	1468	Hicksville J-Birds	Hicksville High School/Hicksville
Regional Finalist #3	6911	SO BOTZ	Tappan Zee High School/ Orangeburg, NY
Regional Finalist #4	8267	Riptide Robotics	Long Beach High School/ Long Beach
Regional Winner #1**	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/ Southold
Regional Winner #2**	3171	HURRICANES	Westhampton Beach High School/Westhampton Beach
Regional Winner #3**	2872	CyberCats	The Wheatley School/ Old Westbury
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award**	6024	R Factor	Neighborhood Group/Mumbai, India
Regional Chairman’s Award* **	2638	Rebel Robotics	Great Neck South High School/Great Neck

 

* 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 2019 FIRST^® Championship presented by Qualcomm® Incorporated at either the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas on April 17-20 or the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan on April 24-27.

*** 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 School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.
School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) DBA FIRST^® 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, SBPLI brought FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to Long Island, which 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. SBPLI also hosts Long Island’s 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, SBPLI added the FIRST^® Tech Challenge to its roster of programs. For more information about the programs, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.firstlongisland.org.