YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Youngstown State University student Brandon Malahtaris and his group of senior mechanical engineers spent eight months developing a heavyweight combat robot. 

The Youngstown native said the TV show Battlebots was the reason he started pursuing a degree in engineering. 

What You Need To Know

  • Emperor is one of 18 projects involving 50 senior students recently on display at YSU’s STEM lab

  • Owners of "Emperor" hope to one day take part in Battlebots competition 

  • Many of the senior students in the STEM program already have real-world jobs lined up 

“This is the emperor. This is basically our application, like the Battlebots TV show, so it’s a three-minute heavyweight combat competition. Each robot weighs about 250 pounds. We have some type of weapons system that’s meant to destroy the other robot,” said Malahtaris. 

The team recently took part in the Robogames, the largest robot competition and expo in the U.S.. 

Although they faced a setback, they look forward to future competitions, and maybe one day squaring off on Battlebots the show. 

“A lot of this is, you can have a great robot, but how can you repair it in time? We want to get on the show Battlebots. For us, that would be the biggest reward. And if we win that competition, we would get a giant nut trophy, which is literally a giant nut,” said Malahtaris. 

Emperor is one of 18 projects involving 50 senior students recently on display at YSU’s STEM lab. 

“These students work all year on these projects. They put so much time into them,” said Hazel Marie, YSU engineering professor and program coordinator.

She said while some projects reach a completed prototype stage, others will be passed on to a new engineering class. 

“The prosthetic arm project will be picked up for a second version for next year. All the competition teams like the Battlebots, they will be passed on to juniors right now, sitting in class very anxious to take over. Most of our students within the first month of graduating have a job that they are starting,” said Marie. 

“I’m a huge believer in STEM. I love everything about it,” said Malahtaris.   

Malahtaris said he will enter the aerospace field and has a job lined up in Fort Worth Texas. 

He encourages students to become involved with STEM at a young age to build skills needed for the next generation of engineers. 

“I think it’s a great career path. It’s very rewarding because we get to think about all of these problems. Sometimes we face these problems in the real world, but we have to learn how to overcome them, and that’s where I think engineering really is. That’s why I love it so much,” said Malahtaris.