SBPLI Announces Award Winners at 14th Annual Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition

(Kings Park, NY) — School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) announced its award winners at the 14^th annualLong Island Regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex (Arena) in Hempstead, New York. The event was held on April 5-6.

More than 1,200 students from 50 high schools from Long Island, New York City and Brazil participated in the competition. Teams received honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

“All teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, gracious professionalism and strategic thinking, but these winners went above and beyond to overcome the challenges of the competition,” said Ginny Greco, FRC Director of SBPLI, sponsor 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, program and build a robot over a six-week timeframe using a “kit of parts” and a standard set of rules. The students gathered to compete with their robots in this year’s game “ULTIMATE ASCENT^SM,” in which two Alliances of three teams each attempted to throw as many flying discs into their goals as possible during the two-minute, 15-second match. Discs thrown into higher goals scored Alliances more points. Matches ended with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field.

Winners of the Long Island Regional awards include:

* 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 FRC Championship that will take place April 24-27 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO.

SBPLI named Terri Hovanec, a longtime volunteer at the Long Island FRC, and Mary Anne Sadowski, Principal, Ingerman Smith, LLP, as its Volunteers of the Year. The Fred Breithut Award went to Nick Panzarino of Westhampton Beach High School Robotics Team #3171. Catherine Temps, mentor for the Hicksville High School Robotics Team #1468, received the Regional Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Alexandra Smaldone of the Patchogue-Medford High School Robotics Team #329 and Dylan Wagner of the Plainedge High School Robotics Team #527.

Other major sponsors for this year’s competition were Motorola Solutions Foundation, Festo Corporation, Hofstra University, School Construction Consultants, Inc., BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Stony Brook University, Farmingdale State College, Schenck Trebel Corporation, and Estée Lauder Companies.

For more information about SBPLI, visit www.sbpli.org.

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School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) was founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses that would provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce. Over 100 partnerships have been formed. In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition to Long Island, in which eight high school teams participated. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition has grown to 50 teams competing each year. SBPLI also hosts Long Island’s annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo, in which approximately 1,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. For more information, visit www.sbpli.org.