FIRST Long Island announces regional winners of robotics competition

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Long Island presented its 2025 Long Island Regional on Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22 at Hofstra University’s David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex in Hempstead.

Forty-nine teams from Long Island, New York City, and India took part in the four-day competition, which culminated with awards and honors for areas such as design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.

“This was one of the best Long Island Regionals we’ve experienced,” said Bertram Dittmar, executive director, FIRST Long Island. “All participating teams demonstrated tremendous teamwork, gracious professionalism^™ and critical thinking. The fun and excitement of the competition was evident as many students and mentors got caught up in the spirit of the event.”

The Long Island Regional featured teams of high school-aged students from across Long Island, the New York metropolitan area and even around the world 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.

The winners of the 2025 Long Island Regional were the three-team alliance made up of “Kingsmen Robotics” (Team #3736) from Kings Park High School, “POBots” (Team #353) from Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK High School and “Longwood RoboLions” (Team #564) from Longwood High School.

“Longwood RoboLions” from Longwood High School in Middle Island took home the coveted FIRST Impact Award, the event’s most prestigious award, which recognizes the team that best embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and that best represents a model for other teams to emulate. “Mineola Wild Reds” (Team #6806) from Mineola High School won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award.

These teams are now eligible to compete at the 2025 FIRST Championship presented by BAE Systems at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, from Wednesday, April 16 through Saturday, April 19.

Ashwin Shah, team mentor, Team #9692 “Sigma Powered By Adipro” from Mumbai, India, was named a finalist for the Woodie Flowers Award. Winners of the Dean’s List Finalist Award were Matthew L of Team #810 “The Mechanical Bulls” from Smithtown High School and Igor D of Team #6806 “Mineola Wild Reds” from Mineola High School.

For more information on FIRST Long Island, please visit www.firstlongisland.org.