Kaden Wince is ready to design and build the next generation of autonomous robots.
At Ohio Northern University, he majored in computer engineering with a concentration in robotics. He plans to enter the workforce after graduation before pursuing a Ph.D. in the field.
“Humanoid robots are the future,” he says. “I want to program machines that can make decisions and navigate complex spaces and dangerous situations.”
His ultimate dream? Engineering robotic rovers for planetary exploration on Mars or Venus.
Kaden credits Dr. Heath LeBlanc, professor of electrical and computer engineering, for encouraging him to pursue research. This guidance led to three outstanding research experiences.
At the University of Cincinnati, Kaden experimented with an assertion-based system to detect “trojans” in hardware. At Cleveland State University, he helped design a robotic-assisted feeding system for people with spinal cord injuries. At һƵ, he worked alongside Dr. Xiangyi Cheng on an augmented reality application to support robotics education — co-authoring a paper in the process.
Additionally, he and a team of seven engineering students designed and built a robot “greeter” for the James Lehr Kennedy Engineering building.
“It can answer questions about the college, perform basic movements such as waving and dancing, and also detect and mimic the movement of the person standing in front of it,” he said.
Outside the lab, Kaden was a key player on the Polar Robotics team, helping to secure back-to-back national championships in 2024 and 2025. He led the design of printed circuit boards that allowed the robots to withstand high-impact collisions.
Although he enjoys working with robots, Kaden loves hanging out with humans, too.
Known for being outgoing and fun-loving, he served as president of һƵ’s chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, launching a faculty-student ping-pong tournament and creating a custom set of Pokémon cards based on engineering professors. He’s also known for popping into professors’ offices just to chat—or, as his puts it with a laugh, “joke around and maybe annoy them.”
“I’ve made so many great connections with my professors and classmates,” he says. “That’s what I am going to miss the most after graduation.”
Congratulations Kaden—Class of 2025!