On September 29, 2024, the LigerBots, along with other FRC teams, came to the 2024 Cambridge Science Fair at Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA.

We brought our 2024 season competition robot and showed off its features to the public. Our  robot also tossed out pieces from the 2024 season game.

The kids in attendance had great fun catching and “feeding” circular pieces back to the robot.

In addition, LigerBots ran several STEAM-related activities for kids. These activities consist of learning science, creating 3D figures out of origami, and crafting bracelets to teach basic binary code, used in programming.

There were many tables and booths offering STEAM activities at the fair, so kids could get and make all kinds of awesome projects as they traveled around the square.

Save the date for the FLL Championship and STEAM Expo on Saturday, December 14th at Newton North!

With about 100 kids and adults in attendance, the LigerBots successfully promoted a love of STEAM at Countryside Elementary’s Back to School Picnic on September 9th.

Eight team members attended the event, and ran an event table with three big-hit STEAM activities: Origami, Binary Beads, and Skeleton Handprint.  Roughly 45 kids came to visit the table!  Each of the activities helped elementary schoolers learn skills in science, engineering, and arts while creating cool projects they could bring home.

The LigerBots connected with many students who might be interested in joining the LigerBots in the future!

The team also brought the 2022 robot and displayed it for the kids and their families. There was a lot of interest and community building done at the picnic and many people were intrigued by the robot.

Although we experienced technical difficulties with the robot not working, we overcame this challenge by explaining to kids and families why every part of the robot is useful and why it is necessary.

On Saturday, September 21, the LigerBots hosted the first ever FRC RoboCon NE at WPS.  With many amazing speakers presenting, the event was a smashing success!

Many students and mentors volunteered to assist during the event and in the days leading up to it.  RoboCon would not have been possible without their help.

During one of the morning presentations, three members of the Gongoliers (FRC 5112) talked about their team’s organizational structure. Attendees learned about their skill badge system, where team members are awarded badges for doing things on the team and their department system where certain branches of the team fall into categories.

Keynote speaker, Robin Saitz, the former Chief Marketing Officer at Rockwell Automation, and a longtime sponsor of the LigerBots, talked about her experience working at a variety of companies such as Raytheon, GTE, PTC, Brainshark, Avecto, Plex, and Rockwell. She is also a founding mentor of our team.

Adrienne Clark, our second keynote speaker, is the Director of Engineering Operations at Re:Build Fikst.  Adrienne talked about learning from failure, in which she gave a presentation about famous failures in the past and what went wrong.  She also suggested ways to improve in the workspace to prevent failure and be successful.

Other presentations included an alumni panel about how FIRST influences lives and careers, a race car building workshop by ALARM Robotics (FRC 2079), a presentation by Carly Buchanan and Dan Lavoie about mechanism design, a speech by Tufts student Hang Yu about learning, and a speech about efficiency by Blake Bourque.  The presentations were all very deep and fascinating with many thoughtful questions asked by attendees.  

We hope to host this event again next year and for many more years to come!   

On September 28, the LigerBots went to the RoboBoston event in the Seaport. Many tech companies were there as well as some of our fellow FIRST robotics teams. We were able to compete with other teams in an arena inside the venue and give out our team buttons.

Before the event started, there was a robot block party where all the participating teams took their robots on a trip around a city block. This tradition has become a hallmark of the event!

A big part of this event was spreading awareness about our team. One way we do this is through giving people our handmade buttons. Throughout the day, we worked very hard to make and distribute about 65 buttons. It was a struggle at times but we were able to keep up with the demand.

This was a very successful event as always, and we look forward to more outreach events in the future!   Stay tuned for RiverRage this weekend, October 26-27 and the Pumpkin Smash on November 2.

On Sunday, September 15, we ran a STEAM expo for neurodivergent children at WPS. The kids were very interested in the activities and it felt good to give back to the members of the community around us. FIRST is not just about robots, it’s about who you impact too.

We offered many outreach activities including slime, binary beads, skeleton handprints, coloring, legos, human robot, and of course the actual robot. Each station offered a unique experience for the kids to learn more about what we do.

At the coloring station, kids colored in templates of the liger, our team mascot.

At the Lego station, kids built freely using lego bricks. In this photo, Gabe and the student are building vehicles from the numerous Lego wheels.

Our robot is the main attraction at every event- we are a robotics team, after all! The 2022 robot shoots inflatable balls which are always a lot of fun for kids to catch.

This event was a success for us and the neurodivergent members of our community. We look forward to seeing you at upcoming outreach events!