More than 800 teenagers from Long Island and metropolitan New York-area schools converged at the Javits Center at Stony Brook University on January 7 for a local kickoff of the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) where they learned details of a new robotics game called “Rebound RumbleSM.”

Working with adult mentors, FRC teams must determine their strategies and use the next six weeks to build, program, and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. In Rebound RumbleSM, two alliances of three teams compete on a 27-by-54-foot playing field as they try to propel as many of the basketballs into the hoops as possible during the 2-minute, 15-second match. Balls entering higher hoops score more points for the alliance. Alliances are awarded bonus points if they are balanced on bridges at the end of the match. In matches where opponent Alliances work together to balance on the white bridge, all participating teams earn additional valuable seeding points.

At the kickoff, teams were shown the game field and received a kit of parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC, and a mix of automation components — but no instructions. Once these young inventors create a robot, their teams participate in competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of the students.

It was also announced at the kickoff that two rookie teams will participate in this year's Long Island Regional FRC: North Shore High School Team #3950 and Central Islip High School Team #4006. They will join more than 50 teams from Long Island, New York City, upstate New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio at Hofstra University for SBPLI's 13th annual Long Island FRC, which will take place March 29-31.

As a result of their participation, both teams will have access to over 600 scholarships worth more than $14 million this year.

This weekend’s FRC kickoff was sponsored by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI), which has also sponsored the Long Island Regional FRC for the past thirteen years, and Stony Brook University. Sponsors provide resources including time and talent from professional mentors, services, equipment, financial contributions, and/or volunteers.

The Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition showcases the talents of these students who learn not only the basic technological aspects of building their robots, but also about other concepts such as teamwork, problem solving and gracious professionalism.