On March 19 and 20, over 10,000 spectators gathered at Suffolk County Community College's Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood to watch 37 teams of high school students compete at the Long Island Regional competition to earn a spot at the Championship held April 15-17 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA. Several teams received honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.

"The winners demonstrated tremendous teamwork, professionalism and strategic thinking to overcome the challenges of the competition," said Fred Breithut, President of the 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, "First Frenzy" which took place on a playing field with a mix of robot and human players.  Robots earned points by placing balls into goals, with extra points given to teams who ended the round with their robot hanging from the pull-up bar in the center of the field.

Winners of the Long Island Regional awards include:

Award
School

Regional Chairman's Award
West Islip High School

Regional Woodie Flowers Award
Brian Buonomo

Engineering Inspiration Award
East Islip High School

Regional Winner-1
East Islip High School

Regional Winner-2
General Motors of Canada St. Catharines Engine & Governor Simcoe Secondary School

Regional Winner-3
Clarkson University & Massena High School & Salmon River High School

1st Regional Finalist
Pierson High School

2nd Regional Finalist
East Meadow School District

3rd Regional Finalist
Smithtown High School

Highest Rookie Award
Hicksville High School

Daimler Chrysler Team Spirit Award
Shrewsbury High School

Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award
General Motors of Canada St. Catharines Engine & Governor Simcoe Secondary School

General Motors Industrial Design Award
Mt. Sinai School District

Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award
Hauppauge High School

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship
William Floyd High School

Motorola Quality Award
East Meadow School District & WT Clarke High School

Xerox Creativity Award
Southold Jr. Sr. High School

Imagery Award
East Islip High School

Leadership in Control Award
Hauppauge High School

Web Site Design Award
Shrewsbury High School

Autodesk Visualization Award-Regional
General Motors of Canada St. Catharines Engine & Governor Simcoe Secondary School

Rookie All-Star Award
Hicksville High School

Rookie Inspiration Award
Hicksville High School

* 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.

* Descriptions of the criteria of each award are available upon request.

**Photos from the event are available upon request