The John F. Kennedy High School's robotics team, POBots, competed with "Barry" at the FIRST Long Island Regional
Of the nine Long Island high schools that earned recognition in the Optimum Innovator Awards, five Nassau County teams came out on top. The awards, granted by Optimum to teams competing in the FIRST Robotics competition, distributed over $25,000 this year.
Plainview-Old Bethpage's team took the Community Impact Award, while Great Neck South High School and Bethpage High School earned recognition as the runners-up for the Inclusion Award and Inspiration Award, respectively.
Hicksville High School and East Williston's Wheatley School earned an honorable mention as well.
"This award shows how much heart we put into making STEM open and welcoming for everyone," said seniors Alexis Christion and Soham Khunteta, representing the Hicksville J-Birds robotics team.
Jay Guy, vice president and general manager of Optimum New York, said the company aims to "support and foster STEM skill development among high school students" through its annual awards.
This is the third consecutive year that Plainview-Old Bethapge's John F. Kennedy High School team, the POBots, earned a top spot at the FIRST Championships, the school said. The POBots' performance earned them an advance to the FIRST national competition in Houston, Texas.
In addition to the five Nassau teams who received awards from Optimum, four schools represented Suffolk County: Half Hollow Hills High School East, Hauppauge High School, Longwood High School and Smithtown High School East & West
The sixth annual robotics competition distributed over $25,000 between the five winners, five runner-ups and 18 honorable mentions in hopes of advancing the teams' growth, Optimum said.
Award winners take home grants of $2,000, runners-up receive $1,500 and and honorable mentions receive $500, according to Optimum.
"Congratulations to these winning teams; we are proud to support them and look forward to watching them innovate during next year's competition season," Guy said.