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The Team

Team AMORE started as a Senior Project team in 2021. As part of their Senior Project, they started the LSSU RobotX Club. Team AMORE has had five senior projects since its creation, which we hope to continue into the future.

Executive Board

The 2025-2026 Team AMORE Executive Board:

President: Alexander Besonen

Vice President: Landon Westerby

Secretary: Emmett Thompson

Treasurer: John Kowalski

Media Manager: Hailey Greenleaf

Sub-Teams

The Team Has divided itself into 4 sub-teams to streamline work and communication. This year, our teams are:

Mechanical Team - Nathan Vanantwerp
Software Team - Landon Westerby
Electrical Team - William Peltier
Marketing and Logistics - Hailey Greenleaf

Meet The Team

Alexander Besonen

Club President

Zander is a senior majoring in Computer Engineering. He is also certified in Space Operations. He will be graduating May 2026! He is interested in working with Industrial and Collaborative Robots, Artificial Intelligence, and Industry 4.0. Currently she is working on designing a cheap and easy to learn 6 axis robotic arm to help teach the next generation of STEM students about robotics!

Landon Westerby

Club Vice President

Landon is an undergraduate student graduating in 2027 with a bachelor's degree in Robotics Engineering. He is interested in Mobile Robotics and is sharpening his skills in Arduino, Matlab, and C Programing. He participated Vex Robotics throughout High School and has continued his interest into College. In his free time he enjoys reading, playing guitar, sports, and learning more programming.

Hailey Greenleaf

Social Media Manager

Hailey is a sophomore undergraduate student at LSSU majoring in Robotics and Computer engineering. She is a Laker Success Resident Success Coach and does the social media for the LSSU engineering department. She is the President of the LSSU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and plays trombone with the Pep Band. She has attended RobotX 2024, Roboboat 2025, and Njord Challenge 2025.

John Kowalski

Club Treasurer

John is a sophomore undergraduate Robotics Engineering student at LSSU. He already has experience with engineering through the CTE Mechatronics class at Rudyard High School, as well as participation in First Robotics Competition year 2021-2022 on team 5709, Square One Underwater IVD Challenge in 2022-2023, and MATE ROV competition in 2023-2024. As the main programmer on the Square One and MATE teams, the competitions have given him plenty of experience with Arduino programming. In his free time, John enjoys learning new programming languages, playing video games, and building and maintaining PCs.

Will Peltier

Will is a senior undergraduate at LSSU, majoring in Mechatronics & Electrical Engineering Technology. Expected graduation is Spring 2026. Will has a majority of experience with robot programming, panel wiring, and solid modeling. He has more recently begun to focus more on circuits and microcontroller programming. Other programming experience includes C, Matlab and Assembly.

Nathan VanAntwerp

Nathan is a junior undergraduate student graduating in 2027 with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is familiar with software such as PTC CREO Parametric, Mathworks MATLAB, and the C Programming Language, as well as various manufacturing processes. Outside of class, he is also involved with various other clubs on campus, including student chapters of IEEE and ASME; he is the treasurer and vice president of these clubs respectively. In his free time, he enjoys working on various projects and playing in the LSSU Pep Band.

Caleb Lieurance

Caleb Lieurance is a sophomore undergraduate Robotics Engineering student at LSSU. He has STEM experience from the CTE Mechatronics, and the CTE Cabinetry and Furniture Manufacturing classed from Rudyard High School. As well as from participating in FIRST Robotics competitions in the 2019-2020 through 2021-2022 seasons with team 5709 on their design and build sub-teams, Square One underwater IVD competition in 2022/2023 on a two person team, and the 2023/2024 MATE ROV Ranger class competition as a designer and as the leader of the stand alone depth probe sub-team. He has experience with CAD design through OnShape, Basic CNC programming through V-carve, and Light Burn. And is proficient in 3D printer and CNC laser maintenance. In his free time he enjoys CAD, 3D printing, and computer and phone repair.

Draven Klein

Draven is an undergraduate student completing a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. His strong suits include mechanical design, CAD modelling, good work ethic and teamwork. Draven enjoys playing video games, listening to music, drawing, and experiencing stories. After graduating from LSSU, Draven wants to work in aerospace with NASA or SpaceX.

Emmett Thompson

Club Secretary

Emmet is an under-graduate student at LSSU who is pursuing a bachelor of science dual major in mechanical and electrical engineering, with general concentration in each, and expects to graduate in 2029. He is familiar with a wide range of CAD software such as Autodesk-Autocad2020, Inventor2020-2024, NX2020, SolidWorks2025, and is currently learning Autodesk-Fusion. Additionally, Emmet has basic programing skills in the java and C programming languages. Outside of class, Emmet likes to run and participate in clubs such as ASME and IEEE where he is vice-president and secretary respectively.

Noah Goodfellow

Noah is a sophomore in Robotics Engineering. He will be graduating in May 2028. He is interested in manufacturing automation and mobile robotics. He participated in First Robotics for six years through middle school and high school. In his free time he enjoys programming and playing video games and playing Magic the Gathering.

Cason Dowdy

Cason is a freshman undergraduate student at LSSU majoring in Electrical engineering and plans to graduate Spring of 2029. He was lead programmer on his FIRST robotics team and participated in FIRST from 2021-2025 on team 1684 The Chimeras. In his free time he enjoys working out, playing video games and listening to music.

Vick Corchran

Vick is a freshman undergraduate student who is dual majoring in Electrical Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies at LSSU. They expect to graduate in early 2030 with a four and-a-half year program. They are highly interested in working on safety in the automotive industry and is taking small steps in their free time to build up to a career in the field. Vick also takes part in freelance photography in his spare time, capturing ships on the Soo locks.

Hunter Styczynski

Hunter is a freshman undergraduate at LSSU pursuing a Mechatronics Associate's degree with an expected graduation date in Spring 2027. Hunter has experience in the automation industry with control panel engineering, robot programming, and PLC programming. Outside of school, Hunter focuses on developing musical skills, gardening, and building low-tech DIY engineering projects.

Alumni

Team AMORE is built on the foundation of a strong, passionate alumni network. Their achievements, dedication, and support continue to inspire us as we innovate and grow. Team Amore thrives because of the legacy they’ve left and their ongoing commitment to our success!

Meet Our Alumni!

Advisors

Dr. Edoardo Sarda

Edoardo is the faculty adviser of Team AMORE; he is an Associate Professor of Robotics Engineering at Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, MI, USA. His expertise is in autonomous vehicles, mobile robotics, human-robot collaboration, automated systems, and modern control. He is also a former RobotX competitor. Edoardo’s hobbies include downhill skiing, scuba diving, Formula 1, and traveling.

Dr. Travis Moscicki

Travis is a professional liaison to Team Amore. He recently finished his Ph.D. at Florida Atlantic University, and now works for NIWC Pacific. A lover of the robotics community, Travis competed in five RoboBoat’s, three RobotX’s, one VRX, and attended the 2017 RobotX Forum.

Mario Miranda

Supporting Team Amore as an industry outreach professional, Mario is a Systems Architect & Engineering Project Manager for Sparton Corporation, a Tier 1 Navy provider for undersea warfare solutions. He brings engineering experience as a specialist in the development of underwater unmanned systems. Prior to joining Sparton, Mario has worked as a civilian for Government facilities, including legacy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SPAWAR-PAC), now Naval Warfare Information Center Pacific (NIWC-PAC), at their Bayside Robotics Laboratory in San Diego, California with his focus in underwater vehicle development pertaining to propulsion system optimization; as well as part of the Atlantic Center for the Innovation Design and Control of Small Ships (ACCeSS) consortium within the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Carderock Division with his focus in acoustic localization and underwater navigation & guidance. More recently prior to joining Sparton, Mario held position as an Ocean Systems Engineer at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, followed by Systems Engineer at legacy Harris Corporation’s Space and Intelligence Systems (SIS) segment within the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) group in development of recently launched and newly operating low Earth orbit (LEO) space vehicles and satellite communication systems. Prior to and during the merge of L3Harris Technologies, Mario spent several years as, both, Advanced Concepts Engineer (ACE) and Chief Systems Engineer (CSE) for the Maritime Systems group in development of underwater vehicles with specialized robotic manipulation capabilities. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science (B.S.) degree, Masters of Science (M.Sc.) degree and is in candidacy for Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.c.) all in Ocean Engineering with a specialty in underwater multi-modal acoustic and optical communication systems from Florida Atlantic University’s SeaTech, Institute for Ocean and Systems Engineering. He was also a competitor of the inaugural RobotX competition in 2014.