LHS Robotics Team Honored by Village

The robotics from was honored for its efforts this spring at not only the at Hofstra University, but also for its efforts at the Connecticut regionals by at the most recent Board of Trustees .

Members of the Psicotics, aka Lindenhurst Team 533, and their Teacher Advisor and Head Coach John Slokovitz received certificates from Mayor Tom Brennan and Trustee Mike Lavorata before the board got down to on .

Not everyone from the team was there; many were attending prom that night. Nevertheless, the entire team was recognized with words from Lavorata and Slokovitz in the upstairs room in the .

“We had six weeks beginning in January to get ready for Hofstra,” said Slokovitz.

In those the team had to conceive, draw, design, test, practice, ship and ultimately compete with the robot and minibot the team created for the March 24-26 competition, all for the chance at robotic supremacy in a game of Logomotion.

In lieu of prizes, scholarships were offered by the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI), sponsor of the event – one of many held worldwide.

“The has been very generous in backing us,” Slokovitz said. “We competed with 52 teams.”

The team, which has been competing since 2001, came in 33rd, but that didn’t deter them. Slokovitz said the team quickly fixed the they had with the robot that caused it to only be able to play defense. And the following week it was off to the much tougher Connecticut regionals.

“Kudos to our drive team for fixing the problem,” said Slokovitz, who was recently honored during the at the LHS. “The team really puts their hearts and souls into this.”

In Connecticut the Psicotics placed ninth out of 51 teams, missing the nationals in St. Louis, but "averaged approximately $2 million in scholarships," noted Slokovitz, when all was said and done.

Those scholarships fund educations for members of the team at such top engineering schools as RIT, Rensselaer, Cooper Union and Stony Brook, elaborated Slokovitz. “We’re very proud of them.”

“It’s amazing the talent that these kids have,” added Lavorata, an engineer himself. And with that the room erupted in another round of applause as parents snapped pictures of the team being for their efforts with certificates.