It was a huge hit at the pre-season competition, Nor’Easter this weekend!. One LigerBot Member Sarah H. exclaimed that “This event was such a unique styled event that brought great connections across New England”. The full blogpost will be out soon! Feel free to check out some of our other blogposts here.

Welcome our new Execs with us! Check our Instagram to see the full post.

A Productive Summer for the LigerBots!

Over Summer ‘25, the LigerBots were busy. We participated in the LigerBots Adaptive Engineering Internship program, hosted a CAD training program, and co-lead the LigerBoxes summer camp with Newton Community Education. 

Students research and brainstorm on their project

15 Newton teens spent much of their summer participating in the LigerBots Adaptive Engineering Internship program at Newton North. Throughout the program, students worked in small teams to engineer adaptive devices for people with disabilities. In just eight weeks (June 30th – August 22nd), students conducted research, designed their product, made a prototype, and tested their device to deliver successful (and life-changing) products to their clients.  They achieved all of this with no prior knowledge but a keen interest to innovate.

One group of clients were children at the New England Pediatric center who have severe cognitive disabilities. A team of 4 students designed a foldable display with multiple panels that light up in different colors and patterns. The device allows children to engage in cause-and-effect play together using adaptive switches tailored to each child’s abilities. Another client is blind and wanted help avoiding obstacles such as trees and low doorways so a 5-student team designed a working system using a time-of-flight sensor, overcoming many technical setbacks such as their ultrasonic sensor proving inadequate for the job. Their last client was Selim, a young man with muscular dystrophy who struggles to pick up dropped items. To solve the problem, the students developed an innovative grabber using a latex balloon filled with coffee grounds that becomes rigid when air is evacuated, allowing it to conform to and grip objects of various shapes and sizes.

The internship was a big success, as teams gave people with disabilities technological solutions to have a better quality of life.

LigerBots students learning about CAD software

Coaches Igor and Elliot led a Saturday CAD training program to teach fellow LigerBot team members how to use the product development software. Over the course of these training sessions, every teen gained a great understanding of the software, which no doubt will help the team go further in the upcoming tournaments. One student even said that the training was “pretty lit”.

Robotic hands project done at the LigerBoxes summer camp

LigerBots isn’t just for high schoolers! In a partnership with Newton Community Education, we hosted a week-long summer camp. Teammates Stephen, Galia, and Ella taught their 12 campers in STEAM concepts with projects like the Robotic Hands, which taught students about technology, Coke and Mentos, which taught students about science, and other hands-on projects that taught students many other important values. Coach Greer said “The summer camp was great, I’m so glad we helped kids learn and love science over the summer”.

The LigerBots are just getting started, and we’re running full steam ahead into the fall! 

Kids building their own Lego creations 

On Wednesday, June 18th, 2025, the LigerBots hosted our annual FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Information Night at Newton North High School where parents got informed about the details of FLL. Kids got to engage with a variety of STEAM activities like origami and binary beads. They also got to see a FLL kit and field demonstration and our outreach robot. 

A LigerBots member helps facilitate the origami STEAM activity, which helps kids learn about geometry, shape and structure.   

FLL, is a global STEM program for kids ages 4-14 that introduces them to engineering and robotics through hands-on theme-based learning. FLL is similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which we are a part of!  

Coach Paul helps a kid load a tennis ball into the outreach bot to get ready for launching 

The LigerBots host the FLL Newton Qualifier every November at Newton North High School. We also often host the FLL Eastern Massachusetts Championship in December, also at Newton North. To encourage parents to start new teams, and compete in the Qualifier, we give an informational presentation at FLL Information Night. Info NightLigerBot members and coaches cover what FLL is, how to start a team and who we are.  We also collected information from people who said they were interested in starting a team because we can provide guidance and help.

LigerBots members, who are leading the Binary Bead STEAM activity, teach kids about binary code (a system of 0’s and 1’s to represent all information).  

Apart from the presentation, we had STEAM activities including the kaleidoscope, legos, origami, the skeleton handprint and binary beads. They also got to see a FLL kit and field demonstration to inspire them to do FLL. Likewise, we had our Outreach robot up and running, driving around and shooting the huge tennis balls.

Kids had a blast catching the flying tennis balls launched from our Outreach bot, with Coach Paul driving

On June 9, 22 Ligerbots participated in the 47th annual Boston Dragon Boat Festival on the Charles River. This year’s team was composed of rowers, a drummer and a steerer who all worked together to drive their 40 foot boat 500 meters down river. As one of three youth teams in the competition, the Newton Liger Youth Team placed 4th in their division with a time of 02:36:80.

This year’s team faced multiple challenges, including a limited practice schedule and a large number of new rowers. Despite this, the team gave a solid performance during the Saturday time trials with an average heat time of 1:07:62. Unlike last year, the weather cooperated, with cool temperatures and rain that held off until the evening.

The Boston Dragon Boat Festival is the oldest in the United States, and this year, 46 teams competed at youth, collegiate and corporate levels. The finalists of this year’s race will travel to Hong Kong to represent the U.S. in the 2025 Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Competition. For the LigerBots, though, it’s all about the excitement of racing and the fun of earning medals.