For the second year in a row, a select group of Brookhaven Academy students have found themselves in the middle of a six-week frenzy to prepare for the annual Mississippi Boosting Science, Technology and Engineering Robotics State Competition.

Next weekend, the group will travel to Mississippi State University where they will face an obstacle course laid out by senior and graduate level engineering students. The Mississippi BEST “Mining Division” has purchased a fictional mine that contains several valuable resources in record-shattering concentrations, but there’s a problem: The mine is far too dangerous for humans. Consequently, the fictional mine was decommissioned years ago and has since fallen into disrepair.

BA students are coming together to help provide a solution for the simulation. In three minutes they must complete tasks to score as many points as possible. On Saturday, they will test out their skills in a high energy, intensive competition.

“You think you cheer at a football game, it’s nothing like this,” Macey Lea, one of the team members, said. “I’ve never yelled before; I was yelling at those boys.”

This year, Lea is looking forward to participating as a driver, a job that generally falls to the boys. Lea is just one of nearly 30 students who have come together to create this project.

Mississippi BEST is designed to inspire and interest students in engineering, science, and technology through participation in a team led, exciting sports-like technology competition. Using only the materials provided by MSU, students from all over the state have six weeks to design, develop, and test a robot that can outperform their competitors. During this time, the students experience the same problems, challenges, and breakthroughs that an engineering team encounters when it takes a product to market.

In both cases, there are team dynamics, time constraints, material constraints, and pressure from other teams who are trying to solve the same problem. Placed in a real situation, with real problems, the students provide real solutions. The weeks of hard work culminate in a thrilling two-day-long competition where one team achieves “BEST” performance.

But the robot is only half the challenge. The competition also includes compiling a notebook documenting the project, which ends up being about the size of a thesis. There’s also a marketing and branding aspect that requires creating a trade show booth  and preparing a marketing presentation.

“A lot of guys wanted to go into engineering when they grow up,” another member, Missy Clanton, said. “It also helps prepare them for Mississippi State and Auburn.”

But Clanton and Anna Narang said engineering is not the only skill they’ve developed. They’ve learned about marketing and public speaking and how to run a business.

Although many school projects promote teamwork, few develop it across such a broad spectrum. Dorothy LeBlanc, who teams up with Dianne Watson and Leslie Hood to sponsor the team, said they battle that by being particular about choosing the students. They try to find the best fits for each role.

“It’s not a problem because we’re doing what we like to do,” Clanton said.

“We placed ourselves in the position of what we do best,” Narang added.

The students have relied on each other’s talent to complete the project, from Grayson Anding handling the programming to Julianna Mills decorating the booth.

“We’ve needed some mentoring, but I think everyone does,” Narang said.

The project is also unique because of the emphasis of student leadership.

“They are the employees and employers of this company,” Hood said. “It allows them to use their talents they were given.”

The group hopes to expand on their success from last year, when they won second-place overall and third place in the robot. As a result, they earned a spot in the BEST Southeast Regional competition held at Auburn University. As the only rookie team in the competition, the Cougars placed 28th out of 56 teams overall and their marketing booth, a major scoring piece, placed 12^th.

The team also won Caterpillar Teamwork award at the state level.

“As teachers, that’s what we were most proud of,” LeBlanc said.

With just one week of preparation left, Brookhaven Academy looking to bring their A game to the competition this weekend. For more info visit http://www.msbest.msstate.edu.