School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI) has announced that seven teams from Long Island have chosen to represent their region at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) 2010 Championship that will take place April 15-17 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. They will join more than 300 teams from the United States, Brazil, Canada and Israel in this competition.

The teams representing Long Island include Bay Shore High School Team #271 "Mechanical Marauders"; Great Neck South High School Team #2638 "Rebels"; Hauppauge High School Team #358 "Robotic Eagles"; Sachem Central School District Team # 263 "Aftershock"' Lindenhurst High School Team #533 "Psicotics"; Patchogue-Medford High School Team #329 "Raiders"; and the Plainedge High School Team #527 "Dragons."

Bay Shore and Sachem will compete in the Galileo Division. Great Neck South and Lindenhurst will compete in the Newton Division. Hauppauge, Patchogue-Medford and Plainedge will compete in the Archimedes Division.

Patchogue-Medford and Great Neck South were winners of last year's and this year's Chairman's Award, respectively. 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.

Bay Shore, Hauppauge and Sachem were the Regional Winners at the Long Island FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) that was held March 25-27 at Hofstra University. Lindenhurst won this year's Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. Plainedge won the Musical Performance Award, whose musical composition was chosen as the theme song for the Long Island FRC.

Winners of the Chairman's Award are invited to compete in the FIRST Championships in Atlanta, as well as the Regional Winners and the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award winner.

Teams will compete in the game "Breakaway." In "Breakaway," two alliances of three teams compete on a 27-by-54-foot playing field with bumps, attempting to earn points by collecting soccer balls in goals. Additional bonus points are earned for each robot that is suspended in the air and not touching the field at the end of the match.

"We are proud to have seven teams that competed in our Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition represent our region in the Championships," said Fred Breithut, President and Founder, SBPLI. "We know that they will bring with them their friendly competitive spirit, their teamwork and problem solving skills and their gracious professionalism."