Last Tuesday the LigerBots hosted an information night about FIRST LEGO League (FLL) as part of the team’s ongoing effort to increase STEM activity among elementary and middle school students. The event took place at Newton North High School and was designed to help parents better understand what it takes to get a team moving.

While the parents listened to a presentation given by LigerBots students and coaches, the students participated in various activities along with LigerBot team members. These included building Lego towers, experimenting with Snap Circuits, engineering Rokenbok tracks and creating new lines of code with LEGO robotics kits.

We hope these students can join their local FLL team next year.

LigerBots recently competed at WPI’s annual off season competition: BattleCry. Fifty-nine FRC teams arrived on May 20 to play the Steamworks game one more time, meet other competitors, and enjoy a sleepover on the WPI campus. The LigerBots were ranked eighth overall and were captains of the sixth alliance! We also won the Distinguished Controls award for “inspired robot-operator interaction.” Afterwards, team members unwound at an ice cream social followed by an intense series of trivia games and an ultimate frisbee tournament!

In preparation for Memorial Day the LigerBots and members of the Sons of the American Legion went to the Newton Cemetery and planted American flags on the three major veteran plots.

Then the team members marched at the annual Memorial Day parade with this year’s competition robot.

While we marched we shot Steamworks Wiffle balls from our 2017 robot and handed out flyers for our FLL Info Night for elementary and middle school students, which will be held this coming Tuesday, May 30, from 7-9 p.m. in the Newton North high school film lecture hall. We also advertised the LigerBots Team Intro Night for Newton high school students, which will be held on Monday, June 12, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Newton South high school wood shop. More information on both events can be found on the team calendar over at the ligerbots.org homepage and FLL page.

The Newton LigerBots are hosting a First Lego League (FLL) and Jr. FLL Info Night on Tuesday May 30 from 7 – 9 pm at the Newton North High School (457 Walnut Street) Film Lecture Hall (just off the front entrance at Tiger Drive).  FLL is the FIRST LEGO robotics competition for fourth through eighth graders. Junior FLL is a project-based FIRST program for children in grades K – 3. In addition to building and programming LEGO robots, each year’s themed FLL challenge includes a project for which team members brainstorm and present creative solutions to real life problems. This event is aimed primarily at parents, but kids are also welcome to come and learn more about the FLL program. Current LigerBots students and coaches who have participated in FLL in the past will lead a presentation with general information on FLL as well as on how to start your own team. There will be demonstrations of EV3 robots and people to answer any questions you may have. Email [email protected] for more information. Also, please see the FLL page on this website.

This week, the LigerBots had a special guest: city councillor Amy Mah Sangiolo, who is currently running for mayor of Newton. On Monday, she came to visit during a team meeting, where the LigerBots gave her an introduction to the team. We explained to the city councillor what the team is, what activities we do (including FIRST SteamWorks), and how our robot works. Councillor Sangiolo expressed support for the LigerBots and FIRST Robotics.

A LigerBot discusses the robot with Councillor Sangiolo

Last weekend, we demonstrated our 2016 robot at the Newton Festival of the Arts on the Newton Centre Green. Once again, we attracted a large crowd of children who were excited to be able to drive our robot. We also handed out flyers for the FLL Info Night the LigerBots will run at 7:00 p.m. on May 30 at Newton North High School for students in grades K-8 and their parents.

LigerBots help a child drive our 2016 robot

The postseason competition BattleCry is approaching this weekend, and the team is hard at work making sure our robot is in top shape. Among the recent adjustments we have made are the addition of pneumatic pistons and the removal of the front plate. This should make it easier to pick up and place the large, plastic gears used in the SteamWorks game without them getting stuck in the front plate.

BattleCry is coming up quickly, and the LigerBots are hard at work in the shop, improving our robot. We have begun meeting more frequently in the postseason to make our robot as fit as possible for this offseason competition. Our main focus is fine-tuning the robot’s gear-placing mechanism to make it more effective. We have moved the whole mechanism almost five inches lower, and we are also testing out different ways to hold the gear in. To prevent the gear from catching on the front plate while being placed we’ve created a design involving two pistons that hold the gear in place, then open up when the gear is ready to be placed on the peg.

LigerBot works on gear mechanism improvements to the 2017 robot

BattleCry will take place at Worcester polytechnic Institute on Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21. Admission is free for spectators, and a webcast will be available on the BattleCry website.

The team has selected members to hold executive positions for the next year. Ian is our new Chief Operating Officer (COO), Cameron is our new Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and Douglas is our new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

2017/18 LigerBots CTO Cameron

2017/18 LigerBots CMO Douglas

2017/18 LigerBots COO Ian