Dr. M. David Burghardt on the floor of the Hofstra Arena amidst the excitement of the second Long Island Regional Robotics FIRST Competition to be held at the University.

On March 24 and 25, the Hofstra Arena was filled with students whose faces were painted school colors. The music was blaring and the cheers deafening. This was not the NIT basketball quarterfinals but the Long Island Regional Robotics FIRST Competition for high school students. This was the second time Hofstra hosted this exciting event, and it won’t be the last.

Getting students interested in engineering while they are in high school is the primary goal of the Long Island Regional Robotics FIRST Competition. In fact, FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” With Hofstra students serving as advisers and mentors to their high school counterparts, this event is a no-holds-barred struggle among 150-pound robots designed and built by joint teams of high school students and corporate engineers. The competition is surprisingly fierce, and it generates as much excitement and audience participation as a Hofstra Pride basketball game.

Dubbed the “NCAA of Smarts,” the FIRST Competition this year featured 39 local high schools vying for scholarships and a chance to advance to the FIRST USA Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Dr. M. David Burghardt, Hofstra’s Jean Nerken Distinguished Professor of Engineering, says having the robotics contest at Hofstra is important to his department and to the University as a whole. “It represents some of the best aspects of engineering – exciting design projects, teamwork and creativity. We are striving for Hofstra engineering to embody these same attributes in the courses we teach and the experiences students have.”

In addition to the adulation of the crowd and the joy of victory, students have another incentive to participate in the FIRST Competition: Long Island students have been awarded in excess of $525,000 in scholarships since 2002, according to School- Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI). Dr. Burghardt points out that Hofstra provides scholarship support as well: $1,500 a year for four years to qualified FIRST participants who enroll in the University’s Engineering program.

Local high schools winning top honors at the regional competition include Miller Place High School, Aviation High School in Long Island City, Hauppauge, Southold, Bay Shore and Patchogue-Medford High Schools.