PHOTO SUBMITTED / BA Robotics Club students visited the FlightCenter at Mississippi State University on Sept. 6. They are (front row) Renee Kakadia, Dawson Flowers, Jaden Clark, Macey Lea, Kaitlin Bass, Missy Clanton, Julianna Mills, Lucy Leblanc, Taylor Sanford; (middle row) teacher Dorothy LeBlanc, Erin Farmer; (back row) Will Campbell, Brye Foster, Brantley Bell and Fisher Warren.

A group of Brookhaven Academy seventh through 12th grade students will leave Friday for Mississippi State University and compete with other Mississippi schools in the Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology competition, a national six-week robotics competition held each fall around the country, designed to help build interest in middle school and high school students for possible engineering careers.

The high school robotics competition hosted by the Bagley College of Engineering at MSU is designed to engage and excite students about engineering, science and technology. Over 18,000 students participated in the competition nationally in 2013.

Through participation in the project-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program, students learn to analyze and solve problems utilizing the Engineering Design Process, which helps them develop technological literacy skills.

Using only the materials provided, students have six weeks to design, develop and test a robot that can outperform their competitors. This year’s theme is Bladerunner, a take on windmills in west Texas. The team has to create a robot that can traverse the rugged terrain and perform a series of objectives that mimic real life tasks that windmill farms experience. The team will have to build a robot that can safely remove endangered species of animals and other wildlife from danger and into a safe zone away from the windmills.

The team has been building the robot for several weeks under the supervision of BA teachers Leslie Hood, Dorothy LeBlanc and Dianne Watson. The members are Taylor Sanford, Erin Farmer, Lucie LeBlanc, Julianna Mills, Anmol Rani, Macey Lea, Renee Kakadia, Anna Morgan Smith, Missy Clanton, Cameron Watson, Jaden Clark, Grayson Devito, Dawson Zumbro, Kaitlyn Bass, Bailey Stewart, Kyle Cupit, Kolby Ogelsby, Fisher Warren, Will Campbell, Brye Foster, Carter Culbertson, Jacob Wiggins, Gray Anding, Brantley Bell and John Ethan Coleman.