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:

* 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.