Combining ingenuity, bold strategy, and cross-league collaboration, Kettering’s robotics team stands out on the global stage.
At Kettering University, students don’t wait to build the future — they engineer it now. That mindset powered KUdos, Kettering’s VEX U robotics team, to win the Innovate Award at the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas.
The award recognizes teams whose engineering approach challenges convention and advances the game. KUdos delivered on both.
“We came up with a strategy that had never been done before in VEX history,” said Andrew Bolthouse ’27, an engineering major with a specialization in mechatronics systems from Hudsonville, Michigan. “Our robots, Rafiki and Simba, connect at the start of the match and stay joined the entire time. That decision shaped everything.”
Instead of focusing on scoring rings, the team prioritized maximum elevation. The KUdos climbing system allowed Rafiki and Simba to scale anywhere on the field, even on top of other game elements, as long as they touched the ladder. That move gave KUdos a competitive edge that other teams couldn’t match.
“We really just focused on ways to win without caring what our opponents did and without scoring a ton of rings,” said Connor O’Keefe ‘25, the Strategy Lead for the team.
“We knew the points for a top-tier climb were so high that if we could pull it off consistently, we’d force other teams to adjust to us,” Bolthouse said. “And they did.”
What made the KUdos win even more impressive was the diversity of experience behind the build. The team includes alumni from VEX, FIRST Robotics, and Square One, combining distinct competition mindsets into a single, high-performing unit.
“It’s rare to see a team bring together students from three different robotics leagues and have them mesh so well,” said Kim Shumaker, Director of the Robotics Center & Robotics Outreach at Kettering. “That kind of collaboration is what sets KUdos apart. They’re not just building for competition — they’re building on each other’s strengths.”
Many KUdos team members come from out of state, drawn to Kettering by its robotics culture and its 50/50 rigorous academic and paid professional Co-op program. Connor O'Keefe ‘25, a computer science major, hails from Vancouver, WA. He spends his Co-op terms in Troy, MI, working at MAHLE. Nathan Nguyen ‘26, a mechanical engineering major from Cypress, CA, made the decision to complete his Co-op assignment closer to home at RadiaBeam in Santa Monica, CA. Katee Callicutt ‘27, a mechanical engineering major, found Co-op work in her hometown of Greenville, SC, at Magna Seating on its BMW account. Bolthouse credits his Co-op at Magna with helping him understand the value of documentation and version control.
“What I’ve learned on the job, I’ve brought back to the team,” Bolthouse said. “Every time we made a change to the robot, I took photos, tracked updates, and kept our process transparent. That discipline made us stronger.”
“We really just focused on ways to win without caring what our opponents did and without scoring a ton of rings,” said O’Keefe, the Strategy Lead for the team.
Throughout the season, the team met virtually while split between school and work terms and collaborated on CAD and documentation using tools like Onshape and Google Docs. The team’s engineering notebook — another competition component — was the product of real teamwork.
“We like to say: two sections, one team,” said Callicutt. “We can pass off what we’re doing with the robot and know confidently that our teammates on the other section are going to do what they need to do.”
“My proudest moment was when Bob Mimlitch, the co-founder of VEX Robotics, stopped by our booth,” Bolthouse added. “He took photos of our robot, asked questions, and told us how impressed he was with our approach. That made it all worth it.”
As KUdos looks ahead to future seasons, the vision is clear: keep pushing, keep climbing — and maybe one day, take the world title.
“We’re proud of what we built,” Bolthouse said. “But we’re not done.”
