Olive Branch student robotics team showcases robot, asks city for funding

Olive Branch — A student-led robotics team representing Olive Branch presented its work to the Board of Aldermen and requested city funding to support travel and competition expenses as the team pursues the Mississippi State Championship and a potential return to the FIRST World Championship.

The team’s sponsor, Joe Ricker, told the board the group formed last year with no prior robotics experience and now includes seven students and two coaches. “They represented Olive Branch to the world at the world championship in Houston,” Ricker said, describing the team’s progress and two qualifying-event wins this season.

Why it matters: The team says it plays a community role promoting STEM outreach, mentoring other teams domestically and abroad, and engaging local sponsors. City funding would subsidize competition travel and outreach work that team members say benefits Olive Branch schools and community groups.

At the meeting the students described technical and outreach aspects of their work. Amelia, identified as the portfolio team lead, explained that the team’s written “portfolio” documents engineering decisions, community outreach and sponsor relations. “There are 15 pages in it, each of them divided into specific award categories based on how we reach our community, on our team, as well as how we create our robot,” Amelia said.

Nathan, the team captain and design lead, gave a demonstration of the competition robot the students call “Depth Charge,” describing drivetrain, linear slides and a gripper that collects and scores game pieces in the season’s challenge. “Combination of those scoring samples and specimens… as well as hanging in end game… allow us to score points and win games,” Nathan said.

Jaden described the team’s sponsor and outreach work, including visits with engineers at Medtronic and a mentoring relationship with a team in Romania. Ricker said the team holds CAD design sessions—the students reported about 140 hours invested in CAD alone—and has built two separate robot versions this season.

The students said they are requesting municipal support to help defray travel and registration costs. Ricker left copies of the team portfolio with city staff and asked the board to consider funding to let the team “represent our community… in our state and, hopefully, in the world again.”

The board did not take formal action on the request at the meeting; the presentation concluded with the aldermen thanking the students and coaches for their work.

The team’s presentation was made during the board’s public comment period and earlier in the agenda; the group requested city financial support and offered to leave materials for staff review.

Ending: Board members thanked the students and coaches and accepted the portfolio for staff consideration; no specific funding decision was announced at the meeting.