Students from around the World to Compete in Robotics Tournament

Student-built robots will take over the Eugene Levy Fieldhouse at Rockland Community College this weekend as more than 1,000 students from 40 local and international teams compete in the second annual FIRST Robotics Competition’s Hudson Valley Regional.

The three-day robotics tournament includes 11 teams from the Lower Hudson Valley, up from five last year. They are from Ossining, Carmel, Clarkstown North and Clarkstown South, Nanuet, New Rochelle, Putnam Valley, Tappan Zee, Yonkers and Yorktown. The competition brings together students from the United States, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Paraguay.

“We hope the competition continues to spur greater interest from local students in robotics, prompting school systems to incorporate these programs into their after-school activities,” said Michael Zigman, CEO of FIRST NYC. “Training and experience received by FIRST alumni position them for careers in science, technology and engineering – all areas critical to the Hudson Valley economy.”

This year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) challenge is called FIRST POWER UP. Teams are trapped in an 8-bit video game. The goal of each three-team alliance is to help defeat the “boss” and escape. Robots collect and deliver power cubes to gain ownership of switches and scales. Alliances exchange the cubes for power ups. Robots work together to climb the scale tower to face the boss. The top-ranked teams form alliances to compete in the playoffs with a chance to move on to the FIRST Championship Tournament in Detroit on April 25-28.

The community is encouraged to attend the event, which starts Friday and runs through Sunday. The matches take place Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit https://www.nycfirst.org/hvregional2018.

Parents, prospective mentors and students interested in getting involved or starting a team to compete in the 2018-2019 season may contact frcteams@firstinspires.org or visit: http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/start-a-team.

(Photos from the inaugural Hudson Valley Regional in March 2017.)