Arkansas Tech University finished sixth in the robotics skills competition and advanced to the elimination bracket at the 2025 VEX U World Championship.
The competition was held May 9-11 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.
“I would have to say that this has been our best year yet,” said Hunter Mathis of Hope, president of the ATU robotics club. “For the first time, people were asking to take photos of our robots and were genuinely impressed with how good they looked this year. I think having that interaction with others made this year’s competition my favorite one so far.”
Mathis was joined in the 2024-25 ATU robotics club by Brady Bray of Greenwood, Preston Diehl of Conway, Jason “Collin” Easterling of Hope, Brandon Gallegos of Hope, Bo Allen Huey of Conway, Raul Hurtado of Conway, Kavin Kannangara of Bentonville, Juan Leon of Hope, Judit Morales-Mora of Russellville, Ryan Nanthalangsy of Sheridan, Everett Otis of Conway, Brody Peterson of Bentonville, Braden Pierce of Bryant and Cooper Stober of Bentonville.
The ATU robotics club qualified for the world championship for a third consecutive year by earning the tournament champion and innovate awards at the 2025 Texas VEX U Tournament in February.
“That is what drove us this year to perform as best as we could at the world competition,” said Mathis. “We didn’t fall short of anything this year. We gave it all we had, and that is all you can ever do. We were simply out-played. Seeing how well our freshman members helped this year is very promising because that means after some of the others and I graduate the team will continue to represent ATU to the best of its ability.”
Mathis expressed appreciation to the ATU robotics club sponsors — ArcBest Technologies, Wendy’s, Wholesale Electric Supply, Tropikiss, Blackstone Construction LLC, Phillips Medisize, Taber Extrusions and Entergy — as well as the ATU Office of Facilities Management for supporting the team’s efforts in 2024-25.
Jacob Weidenfeller, ATU instructor of electrical engineering and lab director, is sponsor for the ATU robotics club. Steve Ward serves as the club’s co-sponsor.
Members of the ATU robotics club earned statewide acclaim on April 9 when they received congratulatory resolutions from the Arkansas House of Representatives and the Arkansas Senate during ceremonies at the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock.
“I’m very proud of this team,” said Weidenfeller. “We consistently perform quite well and continue to strive to perform even better in future seasons. While the elimination matches didn’t quite go our way this year, the team learned quite a lot and are prepared to use that knowledge going forward.”
Membership in the ATU robotics club is open to all students regardless of major.
Current or prospective Arkansas Tech students seeking more information about the ATU robotics club may send e-mail to jweidenfeller@atu.edu.
