Orangeburg Team Recognized at Robotics Competition

Attended by thousands of fans, families, educators, and industry leaders, the FIRST® Robotics Competition Hudson Valley Regional awarded several teams with honors that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship, and high impact partnerships between schools, businesses, and communities. Held at the Rockland Community College Eugene Levy Fieldhouse on March 19-21, 48 high school teams competed to earn a spot at the FIRST® Championship, to be held April 29 – May 2, 2026 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

With the hope of winning one of the several coveted awards, high school students worked with professional mentors to design and build a robot over a six-week period that solved a problem using a Kit of Parts and a standard set of rules. Sponsors, including  Haas, Pfizer, Con Edison, Orange & Rockland, Optimum, Larry Cohen, and Goosetown Communications, made the competition possible through their generous financial and in-kind support.

REBUILT presented by Haas is part of the 2025-2026 FIRST® AGE presented by Qualcomm season. In REBUILT, teams will use their innovation and engineering skills to re-imagine the past and dig deeper into discoveries than ever before. Two competing alliances are invited to score fuel, cross obstacles, and climb the tower before time runs out. Alliances earn additional rewards for meeting specific scoring thresholds.

“Each team clearly demonstrated teamwork, professionalism, and strategic thinking in solving the competition’s challenges,” said Janice Martino, FIRST Senior Regional Director. “Students, school groups, community members, and professional team mentors filled the stands and helped to bring a level of fun and excitement to the competition. With the sustained support of the lower Hudson Valley community, this robotics competition will continue to grow and inspire students to study math, science, and engineering.” 

FIRST has a proven impact to significantly improve students’ attitudes towards math, science, and teamwork. 

Two awards recognized adult volunteers, with one of the awards going to a Rockland County Adult. The Woodie Flowers Finalist Award, that honors an exceptional team mentor, was awarded to Joey Gottlieb of the SO-BOTZ from Orangeburg, NY. This same Orangeburg team was also awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award, an award that celebrates a team who demonstrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.