FIRST Long Island Announces Award Winners from Event #1 of the its 20th Annual SBPLI Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition

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Members of the Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK High School Team #353 “POBots” pose with their Chairman’s Award banner and plaque after the conclusion of the first Long Island Regional FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, which took place on March 26-27 at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex at Hofstra University.

On March 26, School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI) kicked off its weeklong Long Island Regional FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competitions, which were held March 26-27 and March 29-30 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. Between both events, eighty-five teams from Long Island, the metropolitan New York area, upstate New York, New Jersey, Texas, China, Chinese Taipei, India, Norway and Turkey competed. Both two-day tournaments culminated with awards and honors (noted below) for areas such as design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

 

The winner of the 2019 SBPLI Long Island Regional #1 was the three-team alliance made up of the “Rebel Robotics” (Team #2638) from Great Neck South High School; “Hicksville J-Birds” (Team #1468) from Hicksville High School; and the “SO BOTZ” (Team #6911) from Tappan Zee High School in Orangeburg. Following the SBPLI Long Island Regional, “POBots” (Team #353) from Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK High School in Plainview took home the coveted Chairman’s Award, which is the event’s most prestigious award. It recognizes the team that embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and that best represents a model for other teams to emulate. These teams are now eligible to compete at the 2019 FIRST® Championship presented by Qualcomm® Incorporated, at either the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas from April 17-20 or the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan on April 24-27.

 

Five other teams set to head to the 2019 FIRST Championship presented by Qualcomm Incorporated this year are 2019 Wild Card Winners “MORT” (Team #11) from Mt. Olive High School in Flanders, New Jersey and “Sultans of Turkiye” (Team #2905) from Darussafaka Educational Institutions in Istanbul, Turkey; Regional Engineering Inspiration Award winners “Longwood Robotics” (Team #564) from Longwood High School in Middle Island; and 2019 Rookie All Star Winners the “FORMOSAN SIKA” (Team #7673), from Heng Yee Catholic High School in New Taipei City, Chinese Taipei.

 

Meenal Majumder, Team Mentor, Dhirubhai Ambani International School Team #7539 “Elev8” from Mumbai, India, was named a Finalist for the Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Dirgh Shah of Dhirubhai Ambani International School Team #7539 “Elev8” from Mumbai, India and Shreoshi Rahman of Aviation Career and Technical High School Team #1601 “Quantum Samurai” from Long Island City. Ysabella Bachmeier of Bethpage High School Team #2869 “Regal Eagles” of Bethpage was the recipient of the Fred Breithut Award.

 

“This was one of the best, and certainly the biggest, 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, professional mentors, school groups and community members got caught up in the spirit of the event. Thousands attended the event as participants, volunteers, sponsors and supporters, to experience the beauty of engineering and technology combined with the excitement of a competitive event.”

 

Now in its 20th season, 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 DESTINATION: DEEP SPACESM Presented by The Boeing Company, in which two three-team alliances attempted to complete a variety of tasks in order to score points and win the round, with the hopes of eventually advancing to eliminations and finals. This year’s competition proved to be more challenging, as human drivers had their visibility limited for the first 15 seconds of a game due to a “sandstorm” as the robots are deployed from their habitat, prepare the rockets and cargo ship with hatch panels and load the cargo pods onto their rockets and cargo ship. The robots were either independently operated or controlled by their human drivers via video from their stations. Once the “sandstorm” clears, the alliances have two minutes and 15 seconds to prepare the rockets and cargo ship with hatch panels, load as many cargo pods as possible and return the robot to its Habitat.

 

The Full List of Winners of the 2019 SBPLI Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition Event #1 Awards Include:

Award Team Number Team Name School/Town
Imagery Award in honor of
Jack Kamen
7748*** TECHTOLIA ROBOTIC Tenzile Erdogan Kiz Anadolu Imam Hatip Lisesi/Istanbul, Turkey
Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award 7239 Hell Robotics Ole Vig Upper Secondary School/Hell, Norway
Xerox Creativity Award 28 Pierson Whalers Pierson Middle/High School/Sag Harbor
Delphi Excellence in Engineering Award 3173 IgKighters McQuaid Jesuit High School/Rochester
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award 2638 Rebel Robotics Great Neck South High School/Great Neck
National Instruments’ Rookie Inspiration Award 7611*** AMAL HAWKS Adnan Menderes Anatolian High School/Istanbul, Turkey
General Motors Industrial Design Award 6024 R Factor Neighborhood Group/Mumbai, India
Ford Autonomous Award 3646 INTEGRA BAHCESEHIR Bahcesehir High School for Science and Technology/Istanbul, Turkey
Xerox Creativity Award 28 Pierson Whalers Pierson Middle/High School/Sag Harbor
Motorola Solutions Foundation Quality Award 11 MORT Mt. Olive High School/Flanders, New Jersey
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism 4641 United Red Oak High School/Red Oak, Texas
FCA Foundation 2905 Sultans of Turkiye Darussafaka Educational 
Team Spirit Award     Institutions/Istanbul, Turkey
Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award Winner 2638 Rebel Robotics Great Neck South High School/Great Neck
Judges’ Award 4567 The Mechanized Mafia Seaford Senior High School/Seaford
Highest Rookie Seed 7539*** Elev8 Dhirubhai Ambani International School/Mumbai, India
Zebra Technologies Championship Award #1 353 POBots Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK High School/Plainview
Zebra Technologies Championship Award #2 1468 Hicksville J-Birds Hicksville High School/Hicksville
Zebra Technologies Championship Award #3 2638 Rebel Robotics Great Neck South High School/Great Neck
Regional Finalist #1 3646 INTEGRA BAHCESEHIR Bahcesehir High School for Science and Technology/Istanbul, Turkey
Regional Finalist #2 11 MORT Mt. Olive High School/Flanders, New Jersey
Regional Finalist #3 2905 Sultans of Turkiye Darussafaka High School for Science and Technology/Istanbul, Turkey
Regional Winner #1** 2638 Rebel Robotics Great Neck South High School/Great Neck
Regional Winner #2** 1468 Hicksville J-Birds Hicksville High School/Hicksville
Regional Winner #3** 6911 SO BOTZ Tappan Zee High School/Orangeburg
Rookie All Star Award** 7673*** FORMOSAN SIKA Heng Yee Catholic High School/New Taipei City, Chinese Taipei
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award** 564 Longwood Robotics Longwood High School/Middle Island
Wildcard #1** 11 MORT Mt. Olive High School/Flanders, New Jersey
Wildcard #2** 2905 Sultans of Turkiye Darussafaka Educational Institutions/Istanbul, Turkey
Regional Chairman’s Award* ** 353 POBots Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK High School/Plainview

* 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 17-20 or the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan on April 24-27.

*** Denotes a rookie team.

 

Please Note: Photos of all Award Winners and Advancing Teams are available upon request.