‘The robots have taken over my life’: Automation Engineering Technology student spotlight

At NWTC, we celebrate the unique passions and achievements of our students. One standout individual is Chris Haataja, an Automation Engineering Technology student whose love for robotics and engineering extends outside of the classroom. 

“I’d always wanted to work with robotics,” Haataja says. “After finding [NWTC], I dove in a little bit more and found a program that perfectly fits exactly what I wanted to do in the industry.” 

Haataja is set to graduate this December and is already working in his field at Infinity in De Pere making autonomous forklifts. 

Beyond the classroom, Haataja runs his own BattleBots team called Team Warthog, which includes other NWTC students. Together, they use their creativity and engineering skills to build competitive fighting robots. 

Check out Haataja’s experience at NWTC and watch his team’s robot in action below: