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 #2 on March 24-26 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex in Hempstead. Forty-five teams from Long Island, New York City, upstate New York, the Dominican Republic, India, Turkey and Puerto Rico 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 #2 was the three-team alliance made up of “Team R.I.C.E” (Team #870) from Southold High School, “StuyPulse” (Team #694) from Stuyvesant High School in New York City and Team #2869 “Regal Eagles” from Bethpage High School. “Hicksville J-Birds” (Team #1468) from Hicksville 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. “Real Eagles” (Team #2869) from Bethpage High School won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. The Wildcard went to “Redhawk Robotics” (Team #8739) from the High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture from Ozone Park. 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.

Peter Beninati, 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 Christopher Palazzo from Team #871 “Robotechs” from West Islip Senior High School and John Galletta from Team #810 “The Mechanical Bulls” from Smithtown High School-East & Smithtown High School-West.

“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 #2 Awards Include:

AWARD	TEAM #	TEAM NAME	SCHOOL/TOWN
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen	5298	E-TECH CHARGERS	Energy Tech High School/ Astoria
Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award	694	StuyPulse	Stuyvesant High School/ New York
Rockwell Automation Creativity Award	564	Longwood Robotics	Longwood High School/ Middle Island
Delphi Excellence in Engineering Award	810	The Mechanical Bulls	Smithtown High School-East & Smithtown High School-West/Smithtown
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award	2601	Steel Hawks	Townsend Harris High School/Flushing
General Motors Industrial Design Award	287	Floyd Robotics	William Floyd High School/Mastic Beach
Ford Autonomous Award	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/Southold
Motorola Solutions Foundation Quality Award	2791	Shaker Robotics	Shaker High School/Latham, NY
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism	1554	Oceanside Robotics	School 7 Oceanside High School/Oceanside
FCA Foundation Team Spirit Award	7717	Steam Punks	St. Michael’s School/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Judges’ Award	6806	Mineola Wild Reds	Mineola High School/Mineola
Regional Finalist #1	1468	Hicksville J-Birds	Hicksville High School/Hicksville
Regional Finalist #2	1796	RoboTigers	Queens Technical High School/Queens
Regional Finalist #3	271	Mechanical Marauders	Bay Shore High School/ Bay Shore
Regional Winner #1**	694	StuyPulse	Stuyvesant High School/ New York
Regional Winner #2**	870	TEAM R.I.C.E.	Southold Jr. Sr. High School/Southold
Regional Winner #3**	2869	Regal Eagles	Bethpage High School/Bethpage
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award**	2869	Regal Eagles	Bethpage High School/Bethpage
Regional Chairman’s Award* **	1468	Hicksville J-Birds	Hicksville High School/Hicksville
Wildcard ** ***	8739	Redhawk Robotics	High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture/Ozone Park
Highest Rookie Seed ***	8739	Redhawk Robotics	High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture/Ozone Park
Rookie All Star Award ***	8739	Redhawk Robotics	High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture/Ozone Park

 

* 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 20-23.

*** 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.