ATU robotics team headed to world’s largest robotics competition

The Arkansas Tech University (ATU) robotics team, which has student members from the Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas areas, is set to compete in May at the world’s largest robotics competition held in Dallas.

The ATU team recently took home the tournament champion and innovate awards at the 2025 Texas VEX U Tournament at the Clear Creek Independent School District Robotics Event Center in Houston. One of the event sponsors was NASA.

The ATU team, which had a total score of 96, was topped only by the Texas A&M University robotics team, which won the overall excellence award with a score of 108, according to the event website.

There were 15 teams in the competition, and only ATU, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas earned multiple awards and became eligible for the world competition in May. That event will be held May 9-11 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.

ATU in 2024 advanced through the qualification stage to reach the elimination round at the VEX U Robotics World Championship and complete the 2023-24 robotics season with a top-4 global skills ranking, according to the ATU press release.

Members of the 2024-25 ATU robotics team are Brady Bray of Greenwood, Preston Diehl of Conway, Jason Easterling of Hope, Brandon Gallegos of Hope, Bo Allen Huey of Conway, Kavin Kannangara of Bentonville, Juan Leon of Hope, Hunter Mathis 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.

Membership in the ATU robotics club is open to all students regardless of major.