Newtonville Village Day 2025

On Sunday, October 4th, under clear sunny skies, the LigerBots joined Newtonville Village Day, the city’s biggest annual village celebration. 75 booths lined the streets as local organizations, businesses, and politicians from Newton and nearby towns offered activities, shared information, sold food, played music, and showcased dance performances. We had a dozen Ligerbots manning the Binary Beads activity, taking pictures, and interacting with the crowd.

Kids do binary beads activity

We featured the binary beads activity. More than 40 kids constructed bracelets using different color beads, where combinations spelled out letters or words. This taught them about binary code, the computer language that governs the technology in our lives..

Outreach robot used by kids

We brought along our outreach robot—a crowd favorite—and used it to play catch with visitors. LigerBots team members also explained how the robot functions and discussed its different components and mechanisms.

A boy makes himself a binary beads bracelet

Newtonville Village Day was an exciting and enjoyable experience for everyone involved!  We enjoyed connecting with community members—sharing how our team works, guiding kids through fun outreach activities, and showcasing our robot in action. Since building connections is always our top priority at outreach events, we were thrilled to see so much enthusiasm for our team and for robotics in general.

Check back soon for more blog posts, including a recap of our most recent outreach event, GreenEXPO.

LigerBot students pose at our RoboBoston setup. 

On Saturday, September 27th, the LigerBots staffed a table at RoboBoston. At this annual event, tech companies and local high school robotics teams come together to show the public what science can do. 

Walking through the robot parade with both our outreach and 2025 competition robots. 

During RoboBoston, we participated in the robot parade and brought our ball-throwing outreach robot, which drew the attention of many kids and families. We also brought STEAM activities like origami which was a huge hit among the crowd. LigerBot member Kaylee D. said, “It was so fun watching the children light up when they completed the origami. It seemed like everywhere I went there were smiling kids. There was even someone in the crowd wearing our LigerBots Pride shirt!”. We got to see so many families engaging with multiple high school robotic teams and different tech companies within Boston. 

LigerBot rookies operate the ball-throwing robot in a game of catch. 

Team members also had the opportunity to walk around and talk to people staffing the different booths at the event. LigerBot member Aydan H. said, “RoboCon was one of the most fun events this year because we got to see new teams and businesses”. We got to meet with people from Boston Dynamics, Mitre Blue Tech, Lobstah Robotics (a local New England FRC team), and The Innovation Institute. We learned so many cool things about what was going on in the science world outside that is being developed to help the greater good. 

 Students posing with Boston mayor Michelle Wu

We also met Boston’s Mayor Wu! Students got the opportunity to take a photo and talk to the mayor for the brief time she was there. LigerBot students Shivangi N. and Sophia F. remember talking to Mayor Wu about our team and what we do in the community. Sofia F. said, “Meeting the Mayor was such an amazing experience, she got to learn about our team and about what we do during the season”. Overall, RoboBoston was such an uplifting experience for us. We connected with so many people in the  community and saw what others around us were doing in their companies or teams. We definitely look forward to going next year! 

 Stay posted for the FLL scrimmage and FLL qualifier on November 10th and November 22nd!

The LigerBots will be holding their annual Open House for new members this Thursday, Oct 9, starting at 7 PM. It will be held in the Newton South High School Wood Shop, Rm 9170.  Students from Newton North and Newton South are invited to attend and learn what the team is about.

On October 18th, Ligerbots hosted Robocon, an event in Cambridge where different FRC teams and other roboticists team up and present the challenges of robotics. Over half a dozen FRC teams attended and presented on subjects such as localization, AI, and programming challenges. Well over a dozen ligerbots attended the event.

A trebuchet designed by ligerbots team members for an activity

One of the challenges proposed involved building a lego catapult to launch a projectile into a series of rings. The Ligerbots excelled at this, having a good time and helping others with their work.

One of the challenges proposed involved building a lego catapult to launch a projectile into a series of rings. The ligerbots delivered on this (Idk what the score was, I need to add that)

Members of FRC team 2079 deliver a presentation

Robocon also held many interesting presentations, including one from members of FRC team 2079 on how a small robot helped them keep trainees engaged and grow their programming team.

All in all, Robocon was a great event. According to Gregory, the event “had a lot of interesting talks, and the lego activity was fun.” 

Stay posted for the FLL Scrimmage and FLL Qualifier on November 10th and November 22nd respectively!

On Saturday, September 20th, roughly 15 LigerBot team members attended and competed in an off-season competition at Melrose High school. Fifteen FRC teams attended, competing in a series of qualification matches throughout the day. Team member Sarah H. exclaimed that “This event was such a unique styled event that brought great connections across New England”.

Our 2025 Reefscape robot, Hydra, during a match. 

We had a super great time when we played last season’s game called Reefscape. Reefscape was modeled as a solution to saving the marine ecosystem. Teams were tasked with developing robots capable of picking up coral through an intake and transporting it to the reef in the middle of the field to score a point. Teams also developed an algae intake to transport algae to the central barge, scoring by either tossing the algae into the net, or into an algae processor so that the other alliance could score a point by tossing it into the net. During the endgame, robots raced to a hanging cage to lift their robots off the ground.  

Robots hanging off the deep cage at the end of the match. 

We were in alliance 3, with Team 1058, the PVC Pirates, Team 6328, Mechanical Advantage, and Team 4909, the Bionics. Overall we ranked third!. 

LigerBot members carrying Hydra, from the field.

It was a great experience for our new team members, it helped them to gain experience before the competition season starts. Competitions are usually full- day events that consist of field matches. Team members get a feel for how the game works, and the overall vibe of a competition. It is also a great opportunity for members to try new roles like pit crew or driver.

Pit Crew working on the robot. 

Overall, it was a highly successful competition that allowed new team members to gain more competition experience before the busy build and competition season starts in January. 

Our next events to look out for are the FLL Scrimmage (November 10th) and Qualifier (November 22nd) at Newton North High School. Feel free to stop by and check out what’s going on!