UPTON, NY - A team of students from William Floyd High School has won both a silver medal for being a member of the runner-up alliance and a medal for having the best team spirit in the recent Long Island Regional Robotics Competition held at Suffolk County Community College. Fourteen engineering and fabrication staff members from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory helped the team build their robot for the contest, which was sponsored by FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a nonprofit organization based in New Hampshire.

Thirty-three teams from Long Island schools participated in the local competition, one of fifteen held throughout the nation. Earlier this year, the William Floyd team competed in a regional contest in Hartford, Connecticut, where they placed in the top third, competing against 53 teams. They will also enter a regional competition to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from March 22 through 24.  

With their champion robot are three William Floyd robotics team officers: (from left) Hamerton Jeanty, president; Beth Marie Henninger, secretary; and Gregory Lombardo, vice president. In the background (from left) are William Guiducci, William Floyd School District; Lisa Platania, Computer Associates (CA), holding an enlarged replica of a check for $5,000 that CA donated to William Floyd to help underwrite the cost of the contest; and Richard Spellman, Brookhaven Lab, who headed the Laboratory's effort to build the robot with Brookhaven staff and William Floyd High School teachers and students.