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.