The William Floyd High School Robotics Team 287 recently participated in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) Hudson Valley Regional in Suffern, NY, and had a blast competing with their robot, "Magicarp," named after combining advisor Joseph Carpinone’s name with the water-themed game this year. The team, led by Mr. Carpinone and fellow advisors, Joseph Brand, Roxanna Casey, and volunteers Christopher Ryon and Jack Fried (Brookhaven National Laboratory), competed against 48 other talented robotics teams consisting of more than 1,000 students from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Turkey!

Team 287 Floyd Robotics performed well, becoming playoff alliance captains for the first time in six years – a desirable position achieved by the top-ranked, highest-performing teams/robots. Team 287 placed 10^th overall out of 49 teams and fifth in the playoff bracket. This competition also served as a tune-up for this weekend’s Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition scheduled to be held at Hofstra University from March 19-22! Visitors are welcome and admission is free. Come support Team 287! You can also capture the action live here!

As part of this year’s robotics challenge, students are tasked with designing and building a robot, weighing up to 135 pounds, using a common set of rules and challenges that change annually. In this year’s challenge, REEFSCAPE presented by Haas, FIRST Robotics Competition teams are using their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) skills and creative power to turn up the volume as they design, build, and program their robots for action-packed gameplay. Click here to watch this year’s game animation. 

Floyd Robotics Team 287 members include: Max Heitman, driver; Anthony Nacchio, operator; Carlos Hernandez Parias Jr., scouting specialist; Carmine Nacchio, human player; Alice Chen, media specialist; Hamza Cheema, programming specialist; Christian D’Ambrosio, safety specialist; and team members Gerard Gawlowski; Victoria Basharina; Berline Francois; Bee Indursky; Kenny Vo Nguyen; Jack Pantazis; Alpha Diallo; Connor Ng; Douglas Smith; Giovanni Tzitzimititla; Lucas Colon; and Davyen Robinette.

About William Floyd Robotics
William Floyd Robotics first started competing in 1999 and has won a host of awards including the Xerox Creativity Award (2001); the Daimler Chrysler Team Spirt Award (2001); Regional Finalists (2001); Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award (2002, 2004); Chrysler Team Spirit Award (2006, 2007 and 2008); Judges Award (2009); Regional Winner (2009); Regional Finalist (2011); Judges’ Award (2015); Regional Winners (2016); Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation (2016); Quality Award sponsored by Motorola Solutions Foundation (2017); Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors (2018); Judges’ Award (2019); Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi (2019); the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors (2022); and Regional Finalists at the 2024 Hudson Valley Regional.

About the Haas Foundation
The Gene Haas Foundation sees the growing need for skilled manufacturing employees industry-wide. By expanding access to high-quality manufacturing technology training programs and supporting organizations like FIRST, the Gene Haas Foundation is helping to set the stage for the future of STEM. The skills developed in FIRST Robotics Competition are relevant, in demand and the same skills needed for the future

Congratulations to the Floyd Robotics Team 287 on a great showing at the Hudson Valley Regional and good luck at the FIRST Robotics Long Island Regional this upcoming weekend at Hofstra University!