More than 1,200 students from 50 high schools from Long Island, the New York metropolitan area, Pennsylvania and Ohio participated in the competition. Teams received honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.
“All teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, gracious professionalism and strategic thinking, but these winners went above and beyond to overcome the challenges of the competition,”
With the hope of winning one of several coveted awards, high school students worked with professional mentors to design and build a robot over a six-week timeframe using a kit of parts and a standard set of rules. The students gathered to compete with their robots in this year’s game, “Rebound RumbleSM,” in which two alliances of three teams competed on a 27-by-54-foot playing field with bridges, attempting to earn points by scoring as many basketballs into the hoops as possible. Additional points were earned for balancing robots on the bridges.
Winners of the Long Island Regional awards include:
AWARD
TEAM #
TEAM NAME
HOMETOWN
Musical Performance Award
2872
The Wheatley School
Old Westbury, NY
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen
3059
Riverside Engineering & Design High School
Yonkers, NY
Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award
2875
Cold Spring Harbor High School
Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Xerox Creativity Award
1751
Comsewogue High School
Port Jefferson Station, NY
Delphi Engineering Excellence Award
3137
Connetquot Central School District
Bohemia, NY
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award
884
Malverne High School
Malverne, NY
Judge’s Award
1468
Hicksville High School
Hicksville, NY
Website Award
353
Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School
Plainview, NY
General Motors Industrial Design Award
1796
Queens Vocational and Technical High School
Long Island City, NY
Coopertition™
569
W.T. Clarke High School
Westbury, NY
Motorola Quality Award
527
Plainedge High School
North Massapequa, NY
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism
358
Hauppauge High School
Hauppauge, NY
Chrysler Team Spirit Award
353
Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School
Plainview, NY
Rookie Inspiration Award
4006
Central Islip Senior High School
Central Islip, NY
Rookie All Star Award **
3950
North Shore High School
Glen Head, NY
Highest Rookie Seed Award
4006
Central Islip Senior High School
Central Islip, NY
Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award
329
Patchogue-Medford High School
Medford, NY
Regional Finalist #1
3137
Connetquot Central School District
Bohemia, NY
Regional Finalist #2
329
Patchogue-Medford High School
Medford, NY
Regional Finalist #3
353
Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School
Plainview, NY
Regional Winner #1**
527
Plainedge High School
North Massapequa, NY
Regional Winner #2**
1796
Queens Vocational and Technical High School
Long Island City, NY
Regional Winner #3**
870
Southold Junior Senior High School
Southold, NY
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award**
2638
Great Neck South High School
Great Neck, NY
Regional Chairman’s Award* **
564
Longwood High School
Middle Island, NY
* 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 FRC Championship that will take place April 28-29 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO.
SBPLI named Robert V. Kukta, Associate Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University, and Frank Saladino, a former Technology Teacher at Plainview-Old Bethpage High School, as its Volunteers of the Year. The Fred Breithut Award went to Edwin Meyer of Brentwood High School Robotics Team #3460. Robert Gandalfo, mentor for the Plainedge High School Robotics Team #527, received the Regional Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Emily Stern of the Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School Robotics Team #353 and Joshua Graber of the Great Neck South High School Robotics Team #2638.
Major sponsors for this year’s competition were SBPLI, Inc., Motorola Solutions Foundation, Festo Corporation, Hofstra University, School Construction Consultants, Inc., BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Stony Brook University, Farmingdale State College, Schenck Trebel Corporation, Mr. Scott Matovich and Family, and Estée Lauder Inc.
For more information about SBPLI, visit www.sbpli.org.
*** Pictures of winning teams and award winners are available via e-mail and upon request.
**** Descriptions of the awards and their criteria are available upon request.
# # #
School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) was founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses that would provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce. Over 100 partnerships have been formed. In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics program to Long Island, where eight high school teams participated. Since then, the FIRST robotics program has grown to 50 teams, with over 2,300 students participating in FIRST Robotics and LEGO League programs on Long Island each year. The 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition was held at Hofstra University on March 29-31, 2012.
