School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) has announced that the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge (FTC) Qualifying Tournament will be held on Sunday, January 19 at Hewlett High School from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The school is located on 60 Everit Avenue in Hewlett. This year’s challenge is “FTC® BLOCK PARTY!SM”, in which robots must place plastic blocks onto pendulum goals. Students will program their robots to operate in both autonomous and driver-controlled modes on a specially designed field. Each match will last two-and-a-half minutes, beginning with a 30-second autonomous period. Each team will be required to raise their team flag up a flagpole, elevate their robots off the ground using a platform pull-up bar, and finish the match with a balanced pendulum to earn extra points. The event is affiliated with New York City FIRST, with support from SBPLI. FIRST Tech Challenge was created for students in grades seven through 12 to build similar robots, utilize a smaller playing field, and costs less to participate in than the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Just like in FRC, students apply the concepts of math and science they learned at school to design, build and program robots for a competitive challenge. The FTC is open to high school teams, as well as local community-based organizations We are delighted to help New York City FIRST implement this FTC tournament on Long Island,” says Joani Madarash, Executive Director, School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. “We love helping students learn the importance of math and science with hands-on experience and encourage Long Islanders to attend this fun, competitive tournament.”