Ninety-Three Teams from Long Island, the U.S. and the World to Compete at Hofstra University for CHARGED UPSM Presented by Haas
Area students are charged up for the 24th annual FIRST Long Island Regional FIRST® Robotics Competition, which will be held in a double-header style, with tournaments March 21 to 22 and March 24 to 25 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. Presented by FIRST Long Island, these back-to-back regionals feature 93 teams from across Long Island, New York State, the United States and around the world. These students, aged 14 to 18, utilize 120-pound robots to compete in alliance-style tournament rounds under this year’s challenge, dubbed CHARGED UPSM Presented by Haas. Long Island residents are encouraged to attend to support these local high school students.
The FIRST Long Island Regionals feature teams of high school-aged students competing in a cooperative tournament-style robotics competition. Guided by their mentors, students rely on their skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to compete for honors and recognition that reward design excellence, competitive play and sportsmanship. This high-energy event further emphasizes the importance of high-impact partnerships between students, universities, businesses and communities.
In CHARGED UPSM Presented by Haas, two alliances are invited to process game pieces to bring energy to their community. The alliances do this by retrieving their game pieces from substations and placing them into the grid. Human players provide the game pieces to the robots from the substations. In the last moments of each match, alliance robots race to dock or engage with their charge station.
Each match begins with a 15-second autonomous period, during which time alliance robots operate only on pre-programmed instructions to score points by leaving their communities, retrieving and scoring game pieces onto the grid and docking on or engaging with their charge stations. In the final two minutes and 15 seconds of the match, drivers take control of the robots and score points by continuing to retrieve and score their game pieces onto the grid and docking on or engaging with their charge stations. The alliance with the highest score at the end of the match wins.
This year marks the 24th season of the FIRST Robotics Competition on Long Island by FIRST Long Island’s late Founder Fred Breithut, using his vision for the students of Long Island and the innovative program developed through FIRST. Mr. Breithut, a former educator, founded FIRST Long Island in 1984 to address the gap between the skills needed by Long Island’s business community and the relevant preparation provided by local school districts. In the first 15 years of its operation, FIRST Long Island formed over 100 successful partnerships between high schools and local businesses.
In 2000, the inaugural FIRST Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition was held under a tent at Suffolk Community College’s Ammerman Campus in Selden, with 23 teams participating; it was the first-ever Regional FIRST Robotics Competition held in New York State. Since then, FIRST Robotics Competition on Long Island has grown tremendously. In 2018, FIRST Long Island hosted 78 teams, requiring two, rather than one, Regional events. In 2019, the Long Island Regional hosted 85 teams, with 17 competing from foreign countries—the most in the Regional’s history at that time.
The presenting co-sponsor of this year’s competition is Zebra Technologies, a technology development company that provides industry-tailored, end-to-end technological solutions for retail/ecommerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other industries. FESTO Corporation has also announced that, once again, it is sponsoring the competition, as the company has done since the initial FIRST Robotics Competition Long Island Regional took place two decades ago.
The event is free to the public. Those in attendance are encouraged to cheer on their home teams, visit the teams’ pit areas to see firsthand how these students are able to program, repair and operate their robots. Visitors can also meet with FIRST Long Island representatives, who can explain to them the different tournaments the organization presents and how one can form a team.
“The FIRST Long Island Regional is an amazing way for students to showcase their talents in the STEM fields,” says Larry Toonkel, co-director of FIRST Long Island’s FIRST Robotics Competition. “We are very excited to see what all our Long Island teams bring to the table, and to host teams from across the state, the country and even the world at our tournaments.”
“We are certain that these dual events will provide an even greater level of exhilaration for participating teams and give our local teams an added opportunity to advance to the Championships,” adds FIRST Long Island Executive Director Bertram Dittmar. “With an increasing number of Long Island FIRST Robotics Competition teams joining each year, we plan to continue to double the events in our region. But, in order to accomplish this goal, we’ll need the continued support of our valued schools, families, volunteers and donors.”
FIRST Long Island is the title sponsor of the FIRST Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.
Captain of Innovation-level sponsors include Zebra Technologies, Optimum, Farmingdale State College School of Engineering Technology, FESTO Corporation, PMMI, PSEG, Hofstra University, Long Island University (LIU Post), Northrop Grumman, Canon USA, Investors Bank, School Construction Consultants, Schenck USA, SCOPE Education Services, STERI Technologies, Stony Brook University, Telephonics Corporation.
Friends of the Future-level sponsors include accessLinx, Inc.; Brookhaven Science Associates; Cradle of Aviation; The Dittmar Family; Engineers Joint Committee of Long Island (EJCLI); IEEE-Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Stern Family.
The list of teams participating in the 2023 FIRST Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition #1 (March 21-22), is as follows:
| Team No. | Team Name | School/Organization | Hometown |
| 28 | Pierson Whalers | Pierson Middle/High School | Sag Harbor |
| 329 | Mohawks | Patchogue Medford Senior High School | Medford |
| 333 | MEGALODONS | John Dewey High School | Brooklyn, NY |
| 334 | TechKnights | Brooklyn Technical High School | Brooklyn, NY |
| 369 | High Voltage Robotics | Tech High School | Brooklyn, NY |
| 496 | Royals | Earl Vandermeulen High School | Port Jefferson |
| 527 | Red Dragons | Plainedge High School | Massapequa |
| 545 | ROBO-DAWGS | Island Trees High School | Levittown |
| 569 | Rambots 569 | East Meadow Kiwanis & Home School | Westbury |
| 810 | The Mechanical Bulls | Smithtown High School (East & West) | Smithtown |
| 870 | TEAM R.I.C.E | Southold High School (Junior & Senior) | Southold |
| 1155 | SciBorgs | Bronx High School of Science | Bronx, NY |
| 1468 | Hicksville J-Birds | Hicksville High School | Hicksville |
| 1546 | Chaos, Inc. | Baldwin Senior High School | Baldwin |
| 2027 | Robotic Dragons | Westbury High School | Old Westbury |
| 2161 | Robocats | Walt Whitman High School | Huntington Station |
| 2265 | Fe Maidens | Bronx High School of Science | Bronx, NY |
| 2347 | Trial and Error | Walter G O’Connell Copiague High School | Copiague |
| 2638 | Rebel Robotics | Great Neck South High School | Great Neck |
| 2869 | Regal Eagles | Bethpage High School | Bethpage |
| 2872 | CyberCats | Wheatley School | Old Westbury |
| 2875 | CyberHawks | Cold Spring Harbor High School (Junior & Senior) | Cold Spring Harbor |
| 3015 | Ranger Robotics | Spencerport High School | Spencerport |
| 3137 | T-Birds | Connetquot Senior High School | Bohemia |
| 3171 | HURRICANES | Westhampton Beach High School | Westhampton Beach |
| 3950 | RoboGym Robotics | North Shore High School | Glen Head |
| 4122 | Ossining O-Bots | Ossining High School | Ossining |
| 4458 | Infernobotix | Center Moriches High School | Center Moriches |
| 5016 | Huntington Robotics | Huntington High School | Huntington |
| 5959 | Team Supreme | Bridgehampton School | Bridgehampton |
| 5736 | Kingsman Robotics | Kings Park High School | Kings Park |
| 6401 | 8-bit RAMs | Clarkstown North High School | New City, NY |
| 6423 | Ward Melville Iron Patriots | Ward Melville Senior High School | East Setauket |
| 6593 | HyperDrive Robotics | Richmond Hill High School | Richmond Hill |
| 6969 | Cyborgs6969 | Clarkstown South High School | West Nyack |
| 7004 | Ossining Owls | Ossining High School | Ossining |
| 7497 | MARAHO | Taipei Municipal ChengGong Senior High School | Taipei, TPE |
| 7636 | Robomania | National Experimental High School at Central Taiwan Science Park | Daya Dist., TXG |
| 7673 | Formosan Sika | Heng Yee Catholic High School | New Taipei City, NWT |
| 7759 | Bulldog Bytes | Irvington High School | Irvington |
| 8267 | Riptide Robotics 8267 | Long Beach High School | Long Beach |
| 8595 | This Is How We Play | New Taipei City Ger-Jyh | New Taipei City, NWT |
| 8760 | SOUND OF DIDYMA 1 | OZEL ALTIN ADIM OZEL EGİTİM VE REHABİLİTASYON MERKEZİ | DIDIM |
| 9016 * | Syosset Braves Robotics | Syosset High School | Syosset |
The list of teams participating in the 2023 FIRST Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition #2 (March 24-25), is as follows:
| Team No. | Team Name | School/Organization | Hometown |
| 263 | Aftershock | Sachem High School (North & East) | Ronkonkoma |
| 271 | Mechanical Marauders | Bay Shore Senior High School | Bay Shore |
| 287 | Floyd Robotics | William Floyd High School | Mastic Beach |
| 329 | Mohawks | Patchogue-Medford High School | Medford |
| 353 | POBots | John F Kennedy High School | Plainview |
| 358 | Robotic Eagles | Hauppauge High School | Hauppague |
| 514 | Entropy | Miller Place High School | Miller Place |
| 527 | Red Dragons | Plainedge Senior High School | Massapequa |
| 533 | The PSIcotics | Lindenhurst Senior High School | Lindenhurst |
| 564 | Longwood Robotics | Longwood High School | Middle Island |
| 601 | BayBots | Hampton Bays High School | Hampton Bays |
| 694 | StuyPulse | Stuyvesant High School | New York, NY |
| 806 | The Brooklyn Blacksmiths | Xaverian High School | Brooklyn, NY |
| 870 | TEAM R.I.C.E. | Southold High School (Junior & Senior) | Southold |
| 871 | Robotechs | West Islip Senior High School | West Islip |
| 884 | Mechanical Mules | Malverne Senior High School | Malverne |
| 1468 | Hicksville J-Birds | Hicksville High School | Hicksville |
| 1554 | Oceanside Robotics | Home School | Oceanside |
| 1796 | RoboTigers | Queens Technical High School | Queens |
| 1803 | Vikings | Paul D Schreiber High School | Port Washington |
| 1880 | Warriors of East Harlem | East Harlem Tutoring Program | New York, NY |
| 2487 | Mechanical Animals | Sayville High School | West Sayville |
| 2601 | Steel Hawks | Townsend Harris High School | Flushing |
| 2638 | Rebel Robotics | Great Neck South High School | Great Neck |
| 2869 | Regal Eagles | Bethpage High School | Bethpage |
| 2872 | CyberCats | Wheatley School | Old Westbury |
| 2875 | CyberHawks | Cold Spring Harbor High School (Junior & Senior) | Cold Spring Harbor |
| 3204 | Steampunk Penguins | Mary Louis Academy | Jamaica Estates |
| 3419 | RoHawks | Hunter College High School | New York, NY |
| 3624 | ThunderColts | Half Hollow Hills High School (East & West) | Huntington Station |
| 4567 | The Mechanized Mafia | Seaford High School | Seaford |
| 4571 | Rambots | Manhattan Center Science & Math | New York, NY |
| 5099 | Northport Robotics | Northport High School | Northport |
| 5298 | E-TECH CHARGERS | Energy Tech High School | Astoria |
| 5599 | The Sentinels | Benjamin N Cardozo High School | Bayside |
| 5659 | Team Supreme | Bridgehampton School | Bridgehampton |
| 5736 | Kingsmen Robotics | Kings Park High School | Kings Park |
| 6636 | Full Metal Beavers | Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences | Jamaica, NY |
| 6806 | Mineola Wild Reds | Mineola High School | Mineola |
| 6911 | SO BOTZ | Tappan Zee High School | Orangeburg |
| 6969 | Cyborgs6969 | Clarkstown South Senior High School | West Nyack |
| 7673 | Formosan Sika | Heng Yee Catholic High School | New Taipei City, NWT |
| 7717 | Steam Punks | St. Michael’s School | Santo Domingo, DR |
| 8595 | This Is How We Play | New Taipei City Ger-Jyh | New Taipei City, NWT |
| 8739 | Redhawk Robotics | High School for Construction Trades, Engineering & Architecture | Ozone Park |
| 9016 | Syosset Braves Robotics | Syosset High School | Syosset |
| 9184 | Zeta | Sevenoaks School | Sevenoaks, ENG |
* Denotes a rookie team.