As we leap into the new season, we’ve been busy as ever. With submissions already passed in, project groups have started their interviews and we’ve got exciting new events coming up! 

The team working on Infinite Challenge at Home are preparing hard for their interview. As usual, they have had regular in-person meetings in the school to modify the robot and take videos of their submissions. With the slideshow and speech made, they are now working on putting on the finishing touches. 

The Game Design Challenge Team have devised a train-based game, called Locomotive Linkage and complete with manual and field elements, for submission. The graphics team aided in the creation of visuals for field elements and the logo. Their interview will happen today–good luck to them! 

Over at the Innovation Challenge, the team has decided to build a watch to facilitate better communication between deaf players and referees. While continuing to develop two versions of the hardware, they completed their initial interview on March 27 and are now getting a head start on semi-final work, due April 21st. 

The Chairman’s team successfully completed their interview as well, talking about our outreach work during the pandemic. We are eagerly anticipating the results. 

Meanwhile, our spring session of the Awesome Mentorship Program (AMP) is in full swing, and we hope to keep this program flourishing. The marketing team also has an exciting event that is ready to get in motion: a Scratch hackathon (a coding competition to code the best project in a day) for children grade 4-8 on April 3rd from 1-5 pm. It’s looking to be a fun time for everyone involved! 

A new season brings with it a fresh new wave of energy and optimism, and we hope to continue carrying this wave with us as we work to complete all our projects. We’re looking forward to what comes next!

It’s the midst of another intense competition season! Over the past month, the LigerBots have been hard at work, discussing ideas, finishing up submissions, and practicing for interviews!

The team working on Infinite Challenge at Home have had regular in-person meetings in the school to modify and upgrade the robot, as well taken videos of their challenge submissions. They have also made a slideshow for a presentation of the process of making the robot, from prototyping to the various elements of the robot. As interviews for all groups will be held in March, they have been preparing well for their speech.

The Game Design Challenge Team, tasked with designing a new FIRST game, have devised a train-based game, called Locomotive Linkage and complete with manual and field elements, for submission. The graphics team aided in the creation of visuals for field elements and the logo. Currently, they are rehearsing their script and finalizing their presentation. 

Over at the Innovation Challenge, where teams come up with a solution to encourage individuals to obtain more physical activity, the team has decided to build hardware to facilitate better communication between deaf players and referees. Two versions of the prototype are in development. The team has submitted the executive summary and is editing their business pitch and technical presentation. 

The Chairman’s team, working on the most prestigious award that FIRST can give, has submitted both the executive summary and the essay, and is drafting a presentation based around our outreach during the pandemic. 

Meanwhile, we kicked off a new session of our mentorship program, AMP Spring 2021.  The marketing team has made progress on planning a Scratch hackathon (a coding competition to code the best project in a day) for children grade 4-8. 

As always, there is so much going on within our team, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next. Stay tuned for more! 

            Do you have students who are creative and like problem-solving? Programming is a great way to combine storytelling and problem solving, especially when using Scratch. 

           The LigerBots, Newton’s award-winning FIRST robotics team, will be hosting a Scratch hackathon for students grades 4-8 on April 3, 2021, from 1 pm-5 pm. Programmers of all levels can compete in teams of 2-4 to code the best animation in Scratch. There will be workshops in the first half of the event and prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. 

           Please register here if you would like to participate and send this message along to anyone who may be interested. Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] with any questions. 

The LigerBots, a robotics team based in Newton, Massachusetts, is part of FIRST, an organization that encourages young people to use science and technology to create a better future. 

Due to Covid-19, FIRST recognizes that not all teams will be able to compete in the robotics competition, so they have created three at-home challenges that teams can participate in. The challenges are the Game Design Challenge, INFINITE RECHARGE at Home, and the FIRST Innovation Challenge.

Our FIRST Innovation Challenge team has chosen to address the challenges people in the hard of hearing community might face while participating in team sports. Currently, they are in the market research stage of the project, and are hoping for anyone who is in the HoH community or works with the community to give them some insight. 

If anyone is in the HoH community or knows anyone who is, please help us by filling out this anonymous survey and sending it to others who can give insight into the community. 

Survey: https://forms.gle/HkkdvriNuZiwgxbJ7 

On January 9th the 2021 officially began at kickoff. Normally we travel to attend kickoff but it was remote this year due to COVID. We carefully watched the live stream as Dean Kamen inaugurated the new season. This year we are repeating the game from 2020, so unlike usual, we did not spend the day scouring the game manual.

That does not mean there was not work to be done. We had three projects to work on. First, we wanted to modify and upgrade our robot with the knowledge we gained from the one competition we played in last year. We recently have been allowed to use the school workshops with limited numbers of people and following COVID safety procedures, finally allowing u to access our robot. There was also two challenges released by FIRST for teams to work on, the innovation challenge and the game design challenge.

The innovation challenge has teams identify a real world issue and create a solution for it. We then give a presentation to FIRST judges on our solution. Our team has decided to work on a solution to the problem of deaf participation in competitive sports. Our solution is a bluetooth system that allows coaches, player, and referees to send non-auditory signals to deaf players to make it easier for them to participate.

The game design challenge is exactly what it sounds like. Teams create a new and original game like the ones FRC creates every season. FIRST the determines which games are the best and most creative. The game that we created has teams load cargo into a moving train and activating a “telegraph” in the final part of the match.

Although this year has been hard we are as busy as we have ever been. Despite the difficulties inherent with working remotely we have multiple projects in the works and many more in the near future. We hope you’ll see it through with us!