On March 30th and 31st, thousands of spectators gathered in Hempstead at Hofstra University's Arena to watch 41 teams of high school students compete at the SBPLI, Inc. Long Island Regional Robotics competition. The students' goal was to earn a spot at the FIRST USA Championship, to be held April 12th through 14th at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta GA. Twenty teams received honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.

 "All teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, professionalism and strategic thinking, but these winners went above and beyond to overcome the challenges of the competition," said Fred Breithut, Founder & Chairman of School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, sponsors of the Long Island Regional FIRST Competition. "The fun and excitement of the competition was evident as many students, professional mentors, school groups and community members caught the spirit and came to cheer on their favorite teams as engineering and technology at work surpassed the excitement of a championship athletic event."  With the hope of winning one of several coveted awards, high school students worked with professional mentors to design and build a robot that solves a problem using a kit of parts and a standard set of rules. The students gathered to compete with their robots in this year's game, "Rack n' Roll" which is played with two alliances, one red and one blue, composed of three teams each, competing in 2 minute 15 second matches. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent alliance by placing inflated tubes on a center rack in various combinations and configurations and by having robots on a platform at the end of the match.

Winners of the SBPLI, Inc. Regional awards include:

Award
Winner

Regional Chairman's Award* (Highest award of the competition)
Aviation HS,
Long Island City, NY**

Reginal Engineering Inspiration Award (Second highest award of the competition)
Somerville HS, Somerville, NJ**

Fred Breithut Award
Morgan Poulus-Keating
From Patchogue-Medford, NY

Regional Winner #1
Salmon River HS, Potsdam, NY**

Regional Winner #2
Perry Meridian, Indianapolis, IN**

Regional Winner #3
Island Trees HS, Levittown, NY**

Regional Finalist #1
Hauppauge HS, Hauppauge, NY

Regional Finalist #2
West Babylon School Dist,
West Babylon, NY

Regional Finalist #3
Port Richmond HS,
Staten Island, NY

Rookie All Star Award (Highest rookie award)
Walt Whitman HS,
Huntington Station, NY**

Highest Rookie Seed Award
Walt Whitman HS,
Huntington Station, NY

Rookie Inspiration Award
Westbury HS, Old Westbury, NY

Judges Award
Sachem Central School Dist,
Farmingville, NY

Judges Award
Salmon River HS, Potsdam, NY

Imagery Award
Chapin HS, New York, NY

Award
Patchogue-Medford HS,
Medford, NY

Xerox Creativity Award
West Babylon School Dist,
West Babylon, NY

Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award
Bay Shore High School,
Bay Shore, NY

Entrepreneurship Award
Baldwin Senior High School,
Baldwin, NY

Website Award
Chapin High School, New York, NY

Woodie Flowers Award
Plainview-Old Bethpage Central Schools, Plainview, NY

Autodesk Visualization Award
Southold, NY

General Motors Industrial Design Award
Perry Meridian, Indianapolis, IN

Motorola Quality Award
Plainview-Old Bethpage Central Schools, Plainview, NY

Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award
Hauppauge HS, Hauppauge, NY

Daimler Chrysler Team Spirit Award
William Floyd HS, Mastic Beach, NY

Award
Chapin HS, New York, NY

Outstanding Volunteer Award
Paul Controne

Outstanding Volunteer Award
Scott Schuler

*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.
**Denotes teams that qualify to participate in the National Championship to be held in Atlanta, GA.
***Descriptions of the criteria of each award are available upon request
****Photos from the event are available upon request.