Arkansas Tech University is going back to the VEX U Robotics World Championships with a specific goal in mind: the Excellence Award.
The VEX U Excellence Award is based upon a combination of performance in matches, execution in skills demonstration, effective documentation of the team’s engineering, design and coding processes and the rating provided by judges following a team interview.
That award will be the ATU robotics team’s target when it arrives at the America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis, Mo., for the world championship competition April 25-27.
“The excellence award is what these guys are shooting for, and that’s what they deserve,” said Steve Ward, ATU instructor of computer and information science and one of the coaches for the ATU robotics team. “With all the work they’ve put in over the years and the designs they’ve come up with, these guys deserve to be in the talk.”
Arkansas Tech has earned that reputation through its performance over the past three years.
ATU made it to the quarterfinal round of its division at the 2023 VEX U Robotics World Championship and finished top 16 in the world.
Arkansas Tech advanced through the qualification stage to reach the elimination round at the 2024 VEX U Robotics World Championship and completed the 2023-24 robotics season with a top-4 global skills ranking.
In 2025, ATU finished sixth in the robotics skills competition and advanced to the elimination bracket at the VEX U Robotics World Championship.
Hunter Mathis of Hope, president of the ATU robotics club, is part of a group of five seniors who have built the team under the leadership of Jacob Weidenfeller, ATU senior instructor of electrical engineering.
“This year, knowing this is it for a lot of us, we’re prepared to give it everything we’ve got,” said Mathis. “Even if we come home with nothing, we walk away knowing we gave it everything we had. That’s all we’re going for. It’s time to hone it in, give it full devotion and execute as much as we can to see what we can walk away with. Even if we win nothing, I promise we will not go unnoticed at the tournament.”
Mathis is joined on the team by fellow seniors Brady Bray of Greenwood, Jason Easterling of Hope, Brandon Gallegos of Hope, Juan Leon of Hope and Ryan Nanthalangsy of Sheridan.
The roster also includes juniors Preston Diehl of Conway, Bo Huey of Conway and Everett Otis of Conway; sophomores Kavin Kannangara of Bentonville, Judit Morales-Mora of Russellville, Brody Peterson of Bentonville and Cooper Stober 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.
The robot the ATU team is using in competition during the 2025-26 academic year was 90 percent custom-made by team members through processes such as computer numerical control (CNC) fabrication, 3D printing and laser cutting.
“They know what it takes to be successful, and that is put in the work,” said Weidenfeller. “Last year we calculated that the team put in 10,000 hours…spread across the whole season for every individual…and it’s basically been the same thing this year. They work very well together. Our seniors have been working on this team since they were freshmen. They’ve gotten pretty comfortable working with each other, and they know how to push each other beyond what they would be able to do by themselves.
“The skills they’re learning in here (in the Corley Hall robotics lab at ATU) obviously contribute to the success of the team,” continued Weidenfeller. “At a tournament in Houston, someone from NASA reached out and was looking for people from our team for an internship opportunity. Getting our name out there and being able to build a bigger manufacturing infrastructure through our sponsors has definitely played a role in our success, and hopefully that continues to grow.”
The customized 2025-26 robot is part of the senior design project for several members of the ATU robotics team.
“It’s been a privilege and honor to get to know every member of this team,” said Mathis. “It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life the last four years in college. Being able to do this since I was a freshman, and watching myself and this entire team grow as whole…we’ve grown, and we’ve met new guys and helped them grow with us. That’s been the whole process with all of this…to just keep it growing. We don’t want to see any of our progress stop. We want to keep pursuing max potential every year and keep getting better and better.
“Just when we think there’s nothing else we can do to improve, we find a way,” continued Mathis. “That robot is the best we’ve ever looked in the last four years, and I expect them to look even better than that next year and the year after that, too. I don’t want what we did to be the best we ever do. I want someone to outdo everything that our group has ever done. That’s the whole idea…to keep representing Arkansas Tech and the whole state the best we can.”
Ward, who was on hand to witness the ATU robotics team win the Excellence Award during a qualifying tournament in Houston, Texas, at the end of February, said team chemistry is a big element in ATU’s robotics success.
“This is such a tight-knit group…it’s a family in here,” said Ward. “They got down there (to Houston) and showed such a high level of professionalism. You’d see other teams yelling at each other, and if one of our guys makes a mistake, they just tease each other about it. There’s a level of camaraderie here that is hard to explain. The fact that they manufacture so many of their own parts…it’s a lot more personal. These guys put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it, and it shows.”
Those efforts are paying off in ways beyond robotics competition. Mathis, Leon and Nanthalangsy recently signed to accept full-time jobs after graduation. The offers were based, in part, on their involvement in and excellence in robotics.
With graduation approaching in a few weeks and their immediate futures secured, the seniors on the ATU robotics team have one mission remaining during their undergraduate careers.
“Every year, they design a game and you have to solve a problem,” said Mathis. “That’s exactly what engineers do. They’re faced with a problem, and they have to design a solution within a set of parameters. Robotics has taught us about operating within a budget and how to make something work, or in our case, how to win…and that’s what we aim to do.”
