From April 16-19, the LigerBots competed and volunteered at the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas. There were 600 FRC teams from all over the world at the competition this year, 75 of which were with us in the Hopper division. We were excited to be going to Worlds for the second time in a row and our sixth time ever in our 17 years competing!

After practice matches on Wednesday afternoon, we went into all-day qualifying matches on both Thursday and Friday. We won 5 out of 10 of our matches, landing us at rank 32 out of 75 before the playoffs. This left us in an uncertain position at the end of the day of whether or not we would get picked for playoffs.

Saturday morning arrived and we made it through alliance selection. Although we had to wait until the very end, we were picked by the number 1 ranked team, our good friends Nashoba Robotics (team 1768) from nearby Bolton, Massachusetts! Our other alliance mates were Stryke Force (team 2767) from Kalamazoo, Michigan and WorBots (team 4145) from Worthington, Ohio. Together, we fought through the playoff bracket, beat every alliance we were up against, and despite a scare after a loss in the first finals match, we won the next two matches, winning the best of three to become the Hopper Division winners, and getting to the Einstein Field for the FIRST TIME EVER!

Yes, we were super excited about getting to Einstein, but we still had to compete. In our first match, we were up against the Galileo alliance. We ended up losing and being sent to the lower bracket. Unfortunately, our robot was having problems so we had to sit out the next match and let our alternate team, the WorBots, take over. Although our robot was not competing, our alliance beat out the Archimedes alliance. Sadly, we lost the next match against the Curie alliance, which led to our alliance’s elimination. The Newton alliance ended up becoming this season’s world champions, and while we were not the champions, we were still very happy for this amazing season and our first ever trip to the Einstein Field.

In addition to our huge successes in this event, we also won awards! We won the Autonomous Award for the Hopper Division, which is given to a team with an outstanding autonomous design. We also won a blue banner for this season after winning our division. This was our third blue banner this season after winning the UNH event and Coach John Sangiolo receiving the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.

This was certainly the best season that the LigerBots have ever had in our 17-year history! We look forward to playing next year’s game, Rebuilt! Until then, we have two offseason competitions coming up this spring. Stay tuned for the Massachusetts Championship on May 31 and BattleCry at WPI on June 7-8!

On April 6th, 2025, the LigerBots attended the Bowen Elementary School science fair. We brought interactive activities and displayed our 2022 Robot in order to teach the children about STEAM.

Our binary beads activity encourages kids to spell out their names using blue, orange and black colored beads, forming binary sequences. This activity allows kids to learn the starting principles of binary code.

Always a fan favorite among the kids, kaleidoscopes are a new addition this year to our arsenal of outreach event activities. The Kaleidoscope activity offers kids the opportunity to make Kaleidoscopes with their own designs, allowing them to experience unique patterns.

We brought our 2022 robot to this event. Its main mechanism is shooting giant tennis balls at various heights. Although this robot has seen better days, we made the best of it, showing kids some of its functions.

We look forward to our next outreach events coming up in the near future! Please visit us at Newton North’s Earth Day celebration on April 27th!

On April 2-5, we attended the New England District Championship at the Big E in West Springfield, Massachusetts. We competed fiercely and won awards!

Our 2025 robot, Hydra, is a key player in the competition. Hydra had previously gotten us two victories at Week 0, UNH, and finalists at Granite State. We came into this competition feeling really good about our standing and confident we could do well again.

After load-in on Wednesday night, we got right into qualifying matches on Thursday morning. Throughout Thursday and Friday, we competed in 12 qualifying matches in our division, Sosik, winning 8 of them. This left us ranked 9th going into the playoffs on Saturday. This ranking set us up well as a first-pick during alliance selection, so we remained optimistic.

During the lunch hour and at a few points during the competition, food was offered by our team and some other teams for students to enjoy in between matches. Yummy options like lasagna, mac and cheese, salad and fruit gave us sustenance and it was a good opportunity to catch a break from the constant heat of competition and enjoy each others’ company.

On Saturday morning, we went into alliance selection. We were ranked 9th, but we were able to get a spot on the 5th alliance thanks to an invitation from team 195 (CyberKnights). The second pick on our alliance was team 2713 (Red Hawk Robotics). During our first playoff match we went up against alliance 4. Then, alliance 1 in our second. Unfortunately, both matches ended in losses and, as a result, our elimination. This left our team nervous and unsure of whether or not we would qualify for the FIRST Championship.

We are so happy and proud of Coach John S. who won the Woodie Flowers Award. This award is presented to a mentor who demonstrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design.

After the final awards ceremony, the teams who qualified for the FIRST Championship were announced. We waited in suspense as the numbers of the qualifying teams were read one by one and eventually, we heard our team number! We qualified, ranking 17th in the New England district!

Everyone cheered and rejoiced at the news! We are super excited to be going to the FIRST Championship in Houston from April 16th – 19th! Stay tuned!

Over the weekend of March 22-23 we competed and won, at our second district event of the 2025 season at the University of New Hampshire! After making it to the finals at our first district event, Granite State, we dedicated ourselves to bettering our robot. We spent many hours improving both the functionality and efficiency of our robot to ensure that it performs to the best of its ability.

In the qualifiers, we won 7 out of our 12 matches, and were ranked first for quite a while before our team encountered technical problems. Despite this, at the end of the qualifying rounds we ranked 4th out of the 40 teams, assuring a spot in a top playoff alliance.

During Alliance Selection, we were the first pick of Alliance 2 by Team 133, BERT. The second pick was team 5902, The Wire Clippers. During the playoffs we did quite well despite our defeat at the hands of Alliance 1 and subsequently moving to the lower bracket. We made a full recovery and moved into finals, beating Alliance 1 for the win! We are now ranked 7th in the New England district.

Our drive team would not be able to stay motivated without the support of their teammates. Throughout the competition and especially during the finals, Our students and mentors were proudly cheering on the drive team.

Drive team member and Chief Strategy Officer Emily P., a Dean’s List nominee was selected as a finalist for District Championships, where she will again compete for the title. The Dean’s List award is an award presented to a student who demonstrates great leadership and dedication. Also, Coach John Sangiolo was nominated for the Woodie Flowers award, which honors mentors who demonstrate wonderful and effective communication skills. In addition, we won the Quality Award for our robot’s complex and robust design.

It was amazing to experience our first win in 11 years! We are excited to be competing at the New England District Championship in Springfield on April 2-5! Stay tuned!

On March 16, from 2-3:30 pm, the LigerBots hosted an outreach event at the Scandinavian Center in West Newton for a local Girl Scout troop. Team members taught the troop how to build balloon cars so that they could earn their car racing badges.

In order to build a functional balloon car, and earn their car racing badge, troop members needed to use their problem-solving and innovative skills.

During the build, the girls faced a few challenges with parts of the car not working, specifically with the wheels and the balloons. However, they kept pushing through and eventually, they got their vehicles working. Ultimately, many girls overcame hardships and showcased their creative abilities throughout this event.

We asked the event point Fiona about her experience at this event and here’s what she said: “We helped the Girl Scouts get their car racing badges with balloon cars, the activity was rightfully challenging for the group. It was great to see all the girls troubleshoot and keep trying when some part of the balloon car was not working. Especially when it came to adjusting the wheels and fixing the balloons it was challenging for many of them, but they kept pushing through it and most of them got their car working.”

Overall, it was a great afternoon! We hope to see some troop members again at our future outreach events including Earth Day Science Fair at Newton North High School on April 27th from 12-4pm and Newton Highlands Village Day on June 8th, starting at 11am!