This Sunday, September 18, from 12 to 4 p.m. is Newtonville Village Day on Walnut Street. Come check out our booth to drive our robot and have fun STEAM activities! You can find more information about the event here.

This past Thursday, September 8, the LigerBots had our first meeting for returning members. This was the first official meeting led by this year’s new execs—we can’t wait to see how their leadership will shape our team moving forward!

After the welcome presentation, LigerBots got right to work on our many preseason projects, such as repairing the 2020 and 2022 robots, continuing summer projects, and cleaning up our team storage areas. Marketing and graphics students worked on grant writing, recruitment efforts, and creating preseason graphics. A group of students made LigerBots buttons to give out to children at the upcoming Newtonville Village Day. Both technical and non-technical students have been preparing especially hard for the upcoming open house for prospective members, which will be on September 29 at Newton North.

We’re delighted to have gotten off on such a productive start. We can’t wait to see what the new year will hold and hope you will stay with us to experience it!

As a reminder, this Sunday, September 18, from 12 to 4 p.m. is Newtonville Village Day on Walnut Street. Come check out our booth to drive our robot and have fun STEAM activities!

As always, we’d like to acknowledge our sponsors for making possible what we’ve accomplished this year. Thank you to our newest sponsor, Rockwell Automation, and to our current sponsors: Newton Schools Foundation, Newton Public Schools, Eastern Bank, MathWorks, Paytronix, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, Teradyne, Village Bank, Honda Village, Rotary Club of Newton, IvyMath, the Willins, and the Schwartzes. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Welcome back! While we’re excited to leap into the new school year, let’s look back on what has been an incredible summer, packed with team-building activities, outreach events, and summer projects.

Even outside of build season, our students have stayed connected. On August 14, LigerBots went to Nahanton Park to go kayaking along the Charles River. LigerBots have also met up to have picnics, play cards, go trampolining, and even quiz each other on FRC fun facts! 

Besides having fun together, the LigerBots have also continued our efforts in community outreach. On May 29, we marched in Newton’s Memorial Day Parade to honor our veterans, while showing off our robot to excited onlookers. 

The Ligerbots ran a booth during Newton Highlands Village Day on June 12, where we showed off our robot and offered hands-on STEAM activities to passing families.

And, on August 21, the LigerBots participated in Boston’s annual GreenFest, a large, three-day festival at the Rose Kennedy Greenway promoting sustainability and environmental equality. There, we displayed our robot and offered kids fun STEAM activities. Our binary beads bracelet-making activity, which teaches the binary alphabet and Morse code, was quite popular, as usual!

More outreach is planned for the fall, including a booth at Newtonville Village Day on September 18, at Newton Upper Falls Village Day on October 2, and at the Newton Harvest Fair on October 16. So, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and FaceBook for more information.

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This summer has been an exciting time for many off-season technical initiatives. We created a new swerve drive, an extremely mobile (and complex) drivetrain in which the drive wheels can be independently steered in any direction. 

In addition, a group of LigerBots has been developing an FTC “demobot,” a scaled-down version of the Mars Curiosity rover robot, using parts from the First Tech Challenge. Students are in the process of building the “rocker-bogie” suspension system—a design that allows traversal over obstacles while maintaining all wheels on the ground. 

LigerBots have also been updating our 2022 robot, Prometheus, for use at outreach events. We have designed a new shooter that launches balls at adjustable angles to allow for effortless use in future events. 

A group of eager students, led by former CTO Jake, have been creating a prototype of an autonomous clean-up robot that we hope will one day enter the commercial market. This robot is intended to compact and dispose of litter while traversing complex terrain. Students are currently working through dozens of design iterations while experimenting with new materials and manufacturing techniques—all while closely documenting the process. We can’t wait to see how it will turn out! 

Finally, the graphics group has been continuing the redesign, navigation overhaul, and general usability improvement of our website. Graphics students have wrapped up the new, modernized design and are ready to kickstart the coding of the website theme. We can’t wait to show you once we’re ready! If you are an adult who specializes in website development, the LigerBots is currently looking for a mentor to aid us during this process. Please contact graphics mentor Diane Levy at [email protected] if you are interested. 

Given all that we’ve done this summer, we’re amped to go into the new school year strong! Our first meeting for returning team members is Thursday, September 8, 6:30 p.m., at Newton South High School. For prospective members from South, be sure to catch us at the South club fair on September 13. The North club fair will take place in the week of September 12 (exact date to be determined.) Our team open house for new members is September 29 at Newton South. More information about the club fair and open house will be coming soon, so be on the lookout.

Finally, we’d like to acknowledge our sponsors for making possible what we’ve accomplished this year. Thank you to our newest sponsor, Rockwell Automation, and to our current sponsors: Newton Schools Foundation, Newton Public Schools, Eastern Bank, MathWorks, Paytronix, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, Teradyne, Village Bank, Honda Village, Rotary Club of Newton, IvyMath, the Willins, and the Schwartzes. Your support is invaluable!

For the past few months, the LigerBots have been hard at work, using all of the engineering skills we’ve learned this year to create an absolutely incredible robot. The team has had the opportunity to communicate, cooperate, and create a project that we are all extremely proud of. Thank you to everyone involved and showing support! We are honored and greatly appreciate everyone for showing LigerBots spirit!   Our first competition, at the North Shore event in Reading, was phenomenal! We stood in third place at the end of the qualifying matches and earned a place as captain of the second seeded alliance. We made it all the way to the semi-finals! Along with our impressive finish, we won the FIRST Robotics Gracious Professionalism award for our cooperation, fairness, humility, positivity, and respect on and off the field of play. LigerBots’ competition robot repair pit with sponsor banner and robot. Our 2022 robot, Prometheus, climbing up a rung in the “Hangar” field element for an extra ranking point during the final phase of a match. At the Greater Boston Competition, the LigerBots earned a place in the New England district championship! We were drafted into the fourth seeded alliance and made it to the semi-finals again. To top it all off, we were also awarded with the Engineering Inspiration Award, for giving back to our community through our incredible rookie training and our STEAM outreach programs (thanks to our marketing and graphics groups)! Fixing the robot in the LigerBots repair pit. Putting the bumpers back on the robot after quick-changing the fabric to match the color of the alliance in our next match. LigerBots cheer on the team during a match.

Our drive team showing off the 2022 Engineering Inspiration Award at the Greater Boston competition. Finally, at the New England District Championship, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the LigerBots earned our place as captain of the eighth seeded alliance, making it to semi-finals. Our strategy group brainstormed and crafted the best combination of robots for our alliance of three teams. Overall, the team placed 28th out of 160 teams in New England: a fantastic result! The playing field at the New England District Championship. LigerBots drive team in action. The LigerBots 2022 robot, Prometheus, scores  “Cargo” into the “Hub” field element. LigerBots outside of DCMP venue in Springfield. Throughout the season, the team grew together, learned, and contributed to our success by applying our many, varied skills, including mechanical engineering, programming, strategy analysis, marketing,  graphic design, and event planning. The LigerBots family is truly grateful for your help, and we hope to see you again next year for another spectacular season!

The LigerBots will be hosting its annual FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) information night on June 22, 2022, from 7:00-8:30, at Newton South High School. You can register and find more information at ligerbots.org/fll.