Category Archives: Accomplishments

LigerBots excel in first qualifying match of the season

From Newton North HS Senior Davis R: This weekend, the LigerBots, Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team, finished strongly at Bridgewater State University for their first New England District Qualifier. After two fierce days of competition and overcoming a series of technical challenges, the team placed as a finalist out of 36 teams. In addition, the LigerBots won the Engineering Inspiration Award.

This is only the beginning. Tomorrow, the LigerBots will be back in the shop, taking lessons from the competition to make strategic improvements. This will prepare them for the next competition, the New England District Greater Boston Event in two weeks on March 23-24.

NOTE: FIRST Robotics says: “The Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization, and community. Inspiring others to respect science and technology requires passion, knowledge and commitment, and we recognize these qualities through this award.”

Droids, LEGOs and Robots, Oh My!

On Saturday, December 16, Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team, the LigerBots  hosted the Massachusetts East State Championship FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament at Newton North High School along with a STEAM Expo featuring exhibitors such as:

  • Society of Women engineers, who showed kids how to build an LED light;
  • The 501st Legion, who all came in their Star Wars costumes and showed off their droids; and
  • Johnson String Instruments, who demonstrated the math behind music.
STEAM Expo activities
A total of 48 FIRST Lego League (FLL) Competition teams had qualified to compete in this State Championship. After a full day of head-to-head competition, presentations, and STEAM activities, the Goofy Gyros FLL team from Ashland won 1st place, and Newton’s own New England Code Crackers came in 2nd. Newton’s Tie-Dye Chickens won 3rd place in Core Values. Other Newton teams participating in the State Championship included the Cookie Coders and The First Layer. Ligerbots adult mentor Diane Levy was recognized with FLL’s prestigious volunteer award for everything she did to organize the whole event.
Ashland’s Goofy Gyros won 1st place, and Newton’s New England Code Crackers won 2nd.
Honored guests included U.S. Congressman, Jake Auchincloss, who came with his whole family. and the Chief Operating officer of FIRST, Chris Rake.
Many adult volunteers served as facilitators, coaches, and judges for the competition. City Councilor Julia Malakie and Councilor-Elect Rena Getz volunteered as judges, and Councilors Tarik Lucas and John Oliver, along with Councilor-Elect Martha Bixby, also came to check out all the work that LigerBots do to promote and facilitate STEAM education.
Volunteer judges for FLL State Championship
Three Girl Scout Brownie Troops came, earned STEAM patches, and worked on their STEAM TryIts at our Expo. There was much more community participation as visiting FIRST Robotics teams like Record Robotics and the Lobstah Bot helped out and some LigerBots Alumni came back to help out.
Greer Tan Swiston is a volunteer mentor for the LigerBots.

MITES Symposiums: High-school students present their work, July 21 & Aug. 2-3

MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering & Science (MITES) provides transformative experiences to bolster confidence, create lifelong community, and build foundations in STEM for highly motivated students in Grades 7-12 from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. The MITES students who are rising seniors will be presenting their work in two symposiums. Register here to attend:

  • July 21: MITES Summer, in-person, 8:30AM-5PM
  • August 2-3: MITES Semester, virtual, 6PM-9PM each day

New England Sci-Tech celebrates 5 years, June 4

The New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center (16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick) will celebrate its Five Year Anniversary on June 4, noon-1PM. There will be food, music, and tours of the newly renovated spaces and the new Outdoor Terrace Extension. RSVP here.

NEST’s 2023 Cubes-in-Space Team is shown with their new souvenir T-shirts, with team logo and 2023 Cubes-in-Space logo designed by Abriana (4th from left), who won the national competition for best design. Her design will fly on a NASA rocket in June along with the team’s medical experiment developed in collaboration with the University of Louisville. The team’s results will be published in July and presented at the New England HamXposition in Marlborough, August 25-27.

Newton elementary math team achieves 3rd place at WinMaC

Garden City, a team of elementary school students from Newton placed third in the Winchester Math Competition (WinMaC) on May 14. WinMaC is an annual math competition organized by high-school students for students in Grades 4-5. This year about 80 elementary students participated, competing for individual and team awards. Students Billy Wu, Avi Pathak, Joshua Tang, and Alexandra Baskakova represented Newton as team Garden City.

Team Garden City: Billy Wu, Avi Pathak, Joshua Tang, and Alexandra Baskakova

There were two fast-paced individual rounds, Dash and Theme, in which students worked on problems independently, and two collaborative rounds, Team and Guts, in which students on each team solved problems together.

All members of Newton’s Garden City team placed high individually, with the top scorer on the team finishing in fifth place, and the team also demonstrated good teamwork during the Team and the Guts rounds.

Olin College Spring Expo, May 9

Olin College of Engineering will hold its Spring Expo on May 9, 10AM-Noon, when students will share their favorite projects, research experiences, and other pursuits at tables lining the hallways of the Miller Academic Center, in some classrooms, and outside. Community members and student family members are invited, but the school is not able to accommodate any additional groups of Grades K-12 students this year. No pre-registration is required, but please sign in upon arrival at the Miller Academic Center.

LigerBots finish FRC season strong in West Springfield

Following strong performances at the Rhode Island and Revere District competitions, the Newton LigerBots robotics team qualified for the New England District Championships held in West Springfield this weekend. At the start of the competition, Jeffrey Lam, a Junior at Newton North HS, performed the National Anthem on his electric guitar! Competing alongside alliance partners Mayhem Robotics and Air Strike, the LigerBots placed 25th out of 90 teams in West Springfield, nearly qualifying for the World Championships.

Finishing off the season strong, the team won the FRC Imagery Award, which “celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of machine and team appearance.”

Kevin Yang, LigerBots co-CTO and a Junior at Newton South HS, was named one of the four Dean’s List Finalists and thus won an invitation to attend the FRC World Championships in Houston, April 19-22. Until their next competition season, in January 2024, the LigerBots will conduct community outreach events and work on off-season projects!

Ligerbots compete in Rhode Island District FIRST Robotics Competition

After six intensive weeks of designing and building its new robot, Atlas, Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, competed well at the Rhode Island District Competition this weekend. Through mistakes and victories, the LigerBots team was the first pick for the third-place alliance captain and won the event’s Sustainability Award, which places the team 33rd out of 227 teams across the district. Other well deserved accolades earned at the event:

  • Newton South HS junior Kevin Yang, the Ligerbots’ co-Chief Technical Officer, was named a District Championship Dean’s List Semi-Finalist for his impeccable leadership.
  • Greer Swiston, an eight-year adult mentor for the Ligerbots, was nominated as a finalist for the prestigious Woodie Flowers Award, in recognition of her long-time dedication to the team.

Go LigerBots!