When Collin Easterling, Juan Leon and Hunter Mathis of Hope and Ryan Nanthalangsy of Sheridan were freshmen at Arkansas Tech University, they would joke with each other about one day making it to the finals of the VEX U Robotics World Championship.
Back then, they were newcomers to an Arkansas Tech robotics program that was rebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic and made its first appearance at the world championship in 2023. They learned from elder ATU robotics club members like Thomas Dang, Chris Osborne and Braden Pierce, as well as their coach and club advisor, ATU faculty member Jacob Weidenfeller.
Slowly but surely, Easterling, Leon, Mathis and Nanthalangsy became the driving forces of a little engine that not only could…it did.
Arkansas Tech finished top 2 at the 2026 VEX U Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, Mo., and had the opportunity to compete in the finals dome against the eventual world champions from Auburn University.
“Four years ago, when we first started doing this, we went to the dome, saw the fields and thought how crazy it would be if this small group from Arkansas was in there one day,” said Mathis. “There are teams that have been trying for 10-plus years to get where we were, and we did it in four.”
The 2026 VEX U Robotics World Championship included three divisions with approximately 40 teams per division. ATU was placed in the division that was ranked the highest based upon results from previous competitions.
Arkansas Tech lost its first head-to-head match in St. Louis, but that defeat turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It revealed a design flaw that caused one of the ATU robots to shut down.
“It wasn’t like we were blowing through everything and it was smooth and easy,” said Mathis. “There were hiccups and stuff we had to overcome, just like any other team there. There wasn’t a point in time that we thought we were about to go all the way. That’s what we were aiming for, but if you think about it realistically, it’s hard to do that. You have to have a perfect run to get to where we were. There is no room for mistakes.”
Following the opening loss, the discovery of the design flaw and the opportunity to correct it, a perfect run with no mistakes is exactly what materialized for Arkansas Tech. The ATU team reeled off nine consecutive match victories.
Arkansas Tech advanced to the best 2-of-3 division finals against Cal Poly, which entered the division finals 71-2 in matches during the 2026 season and undefeated at the VEX U Robotics World Championship.
“We were nervous going into that, for sure,” said Mathis. “(Cal Poly) is a really good team.”
Arkansas Tech won the opening match for its second victory of the season over Cal Poly. The ATU team was one win away from advancing to the world championship match.
That’s when adversity struck again. A power failure in an Arkansas Tech robot led to a runaway victory for Cal Poly in the second match. The division championship and a berth in the world finals came down to the ATU team’s ability to quickly correct that failure and win one more match.
That match went the way of Arkansas Tech.
With the win, Arkansas Tech became the first collegiate robotics team from Arkansas to win a VEX U Robotics World Championship division title and advance to the world finals.
“We came together, focused in on what we needed to do…and we got it done,” said Mathis. “I will admit that I cried. It was tears of pure happiness for a lot of us.”
That wave of joy and adrenaline benefited the Arkansas Tech team as it prepared to face Auburn in the world finals.
“Surprisingly, driving during the dome finals was the calmest I had been all day,” said Leon. “At that point, we had made it to where no one from Arkansas had ever been. All the weight was off. All the pressure was off. From the time they handed us the division champion award, we all looked at each other, and I’m not sure we understood what was happening. It felt like a fever dream. Every five minutes we looked at each other and wondered what we were doing there. It was so surreal.”
In the end, the team from the plains of Alabama emerged with a 36-33 victory and the 2026 VEX U Robotics world title.
“Going into the dome was almost a weight off our shoulders,” said sophomore Cooper Stober of Bentonville, who will take over from Mathis as ATU robotics club president in fall 2026. “We knew that no matter what, we were there. That’s all anyone wants to do…to make it into that dome.”
The other members of the 2025-26 ATU robotics club were seniors Brady Bray of Greenwood and Brandon Gallegos of Hope; juniors Preston Diehl of Conway, Bo Huey of Conway and Everett Otis of Conway; sophomores Kavin Kannangara of Bentonville, Judit Morales-Mora of Russellville and Brody Peterson of Bentonville; and freshmen Layke Bennett of Cabot, Gavin Copeland of Cabot, Mckenzie Morris of Booneville, Jhon Perez of Centerton and Lukas Spain of Alma.
Steve Ward, another member of the ATU faculty, coaches the Arkansas Tech robotics team alongside Weidenfeller.
“Every team member jumped in to help where needed, went without sleep because there were things that still needed to be done and pushed each other to do better,” said Ward. “I have been coaching robotics for almost a decade, and I have never seen a team that held everyone accountable, motivated each other to not settle and completely bought into the idea of our team is our family like this one did.”
Replacing the nucleus of Easterling, Leon, Mathis and Nanthalangsy won’t be easy, but the seeds have been planted.
“The great thing about our graduating seniors is that almost every one of them has mentored an underclassman in some way,” said Ward. “This is something that I did not really see at the high school level. Without being directed to do so, the seniors understood that in order to leave a legacy, they have to ensure there is life in the club after they are gone. Some of the relationships that were established during their time in the club will last for the rest of their lives. That camaraderie translated into the success we have had over the past couple of years.”
Another factor that supports the chances of sustained success is the fact that the Arkansas Tech robotics club routinely volunteers to help host K-12 robotics tournaments and the VEX state championships for K-12 robotics are hosted by the ATU robotics club.
As a consequence, the Arkansas Tech robotics team members are role models for high school, junior high, middle school and elementary students with an interest in robotics from every region of the Natural State.
“The amount of outreach these guys did was ridiculous,” said Weidenfeller, who noted that the ATU robotics club managed eight K-12 robotics competitions during the 2025-26 academic year. “In my opinion, it makes that world finalist award that much sweeter for them. If we just had a robotics team and we didn’t really communicate with anyone else in Arkansas, people would say, ‘woo-hoo, good job.’ But when these kids are interacting with our Arkansas Tech students pretty much every weekend, the relationships and friendships that are built are meaningful.
“These are a bunch of country guys, so we have some Arkansas pride,” continued Weidenfeller. “We can do it, too. We proved it. They proved it. Just making division finals proved it, but winning division finals and making it to the dome…all of the Arkansas teams seeing that…I think that’s a big point of inspiration for robotics teams around our state. We’re going to keep growing it. If you give students the resources they need, the time they need and the space they need, they are going to do great work.”
Achievements that were once a faraway dream among friends are now reality and a point of pride for Arkansas Tech. The banners and the trophies representing what the ATU robotics team members who graduated from Arkansas Tech in spring 2026 accomplished together will long be on display at Corley Hall as a testament to the thousands of hours they invested in building the Arkansas Tech robotics program within those walls.
Now that it’s done and their degrees are in hand, the young men who made Arkansas Tech an internationally-recognized name in collegiate robotics understand why it was worthwhile for them.
“These last two years, I’ve spent a lot more time outside of this lab hanging with these guys than I ever have,” said Mathis. “The bond we developed outside of robotics has made us 10 times the team we ever could have been four years ago because we care more about each other in general. Knowing that, and knowing how much we all wanted to succeed, is what drove us to where we are today. If there was ever a group of guys to do it, this was the group.
“The thing that defines this team is our drive,” continued Mathis. “Each year, we’ve been driven to meet a certain goal, but this year has been like no other. I don’t think we’ve let anything stop us from what we wanted to achieve. At any point in time, when something has tried to stop us, we’ve found a way around it. We found a way to get it done the way we wanted to, and that’s how we did it for every part on that robot.”
Weidenfeller pointed to communication, learning to meet deadlines, sacrifice, perseverance as some of the most important career and life skills that ATU robotics team members develop.
“These last four years have taught me…with school, with robotics…that nothing is impossible,” said Leon. “You just have to spend enough time on it, and then you’ll get it done as well as anyone else. When you spend so much time on something and you finally see a result, you have that process memorized and you know that you can do it again the next time. It just takes a lot of time and effort.”
Membership in the ATU robotics club is open to all Arkansas Tech students regardless of major. The club needs designers and builders, programmers, drivers, notebook and documentation team members, social media and community outreach personnel and individuals who can aid with scouting and strategy.
Send e-mail to jweidenfeller@atu.edu for more information about the ATU robotics club.
