High School Students Deliver for NEU Enabling Engineering Program

While other students may have been enjoying a summer of leisure, 22 high school students from Newton, MA decided to use their summer to address the needs of the patients of The Boston Home , the children of New England Pediatric Care and the night nurses of Brigham and Womens Hospital. Members of the Newton LigerBots FRC #2877 and the Newton LazerRobotics FTC #23286 came together for 8 weeks this summer to design, build and deliver:

- a wheel chair radar for a cognitively challenged, wheelchair bound, blind child looking for some independence

- an accessible corn hole shooter for patients with Multiple Sclerosis

- a switch activated portable catapult to enable severely disabled children to play

- a handsfree, lightweight, sanitary light to enable night nurses to perform their duties in poorly lit conditions without disturbing their patients yet still follow hospital sanitary codes

- a univeral robotic arm to enable children with severe cognitive and physical disabilities to engage in extra curricular activities.

Each project was given a budget of $700 for R&D, build and delivery and all but one team delivered on time and under budget complete with instruction manuals and maintenance documentation.

NE FIRST partnered with NorthEastern University's Enabling Engineering for the second year in a row for a summer program offering high school students hands-on experience in solving a real world problem by designing, building and delivering a finished product to end users.

“We had a small team and a big challenge," said Yonatan, a rising senior at Newton South. "Our experience on LigerBots definitely prepared us for the time crunch, but we really got the opportunity to try out different aspects of building, CAD, electronics and programming. I got to try things I didn’t normally do during the season.”

Jerry G, rising sophomore, said “We learned so much this summer! Thank you <Northeastern> for this opportunity!”

This week, Newton Public School starts their 2024-2025 school year and these students are revving to go!