Come see the Ligerbots — Newton’s FIRST robotics team — compete against 41 other teams from around the world in the FIRST Regional Tournament hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, on March 7-9.   FIRST is a program designed to inspire high school students to pursue higher education and careers in STEM.  In this tournament, over 40 teams will compete from all over the world.  Each team has 6 weeks to build a robot to compete in the same game.

Leanora McVittie, Ligerbots CEO, reports:

“This will be the fourth year that WPI has hosted a Regional Tournament and our fourth year attending.  It’s our first regional competition of the year, so we use this event to put the finishing touches on our robot and learn about the game of the year — the reality of the game, its nuances, and how to use our robot to its best advantage.

“A major part of all regional tournaments is the judging. Team members talk with judges about all aspects of the team:  Our day-to-day functioning, the robot itself, our outreach work, and how we spread FIRST and STEM in our community.  A wide range of awards are given based on the observations of these judges and our robot’s performance in the game.  In the past three years at the WPI Regional Tournament, the Ligerbots have won:

• the Imagery award, for having a cohesive team image,
• the Website award, for our team website (www.ligerbots.com), and
• the Gracious Professionalism award, for being a role model of working well with other FRC teams.

“While we always hope for an award, this year we are not aiming for any one in particular.  We invite anyone to come watch us compete this Friday and Saturday.”

This will be the Ligerbots’ first regional competition of the year, and you’re invited to see what’s going on and to cheer them on.  The event is free and open to the public at the Harrington Auditorium & the Sports and Recreation Center on the main WPI Campus 100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA 01609).  See details on parking and food, as well as the agenda (PDF) for the three-day event.