Alaska Airlines to fly top robotics teams to world competition

ST. LOUIS — Alaska Airlines showed their support for Alaska’s top robotics teams by announcing that they will fly 26 Alaskan youth and coaches to the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.

FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — is an international nonprofit organization that aims to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology via a robotics league. Programs for students in kindergarten through 12th grade are available.

In the Mat-Su, team 3480 — known as “FrostByte” — from Twindly Bridge Charter School won the third-place Inspire Award, the first-place Control Award and the honor of “finalist alliance captain” at the Alaska State Championship Feb. 20-21. Of the 60 Alaskan teams, six — including FrostByte — advanced to the FIRST Tech Challenge West Super-Regional Championship in Oakland, California, March 27-29. There, team members and sisters Hailey, Sadie and Taylor Olson won one of nine judge awards — the “Git ’Er Done” award — and finished in the top 10 of 72 teams from all over the U.S. and Mexico.

Three of the six Alaska teams will attend the World Championship in St. Louis April 22-25. The Olson girls make up one of those teams, whose airfare will be paid by Alaska Airlines.

Hailey, Sadie and Taylor are in sixth, eighth and 10th grade.

FIRST engages more than 400,000 students across the world. The Alaska program, coordinated across the state by the Juneau Economic Development Council, includes four levels: Junior FIRST LEGO League (grades K-3), FIRST LEGO League (grades 4-8), FIRST Tech Challenge (grades 7-12), and FIRST Robotics Challenge (grades 9-12).

At each level of FIRST, students get to build and program their own robots while applying real-world math and science concepts. They must demonstrate cooperation within their team as well as in forming alliances, during competitions, with a team they have never met.

“FIRST Robotics in Alaska is laying a solid foundation for Alaska’s greatest asset,” said Marilyn Romano, regional vice president for Alaska Airlines. “It’s helping to propel the next generation of Alaskans to tackle future challenges, by promoting teamwork, commitment and ingenuity. It is our privilege to support the statewide FIRST Robotics program throughout Alaska and to provide transportation for these teams as they travel to St. Louis to compete (at) nationals.”

FIRST in Alaska relies on the contributions of corporate partners like lead corporate sponsor BP, gold sponsor Alaska Airlines, and silver sponsors Alaska Communications and GCI.

For more information about FIRST in Alaska, contact Rebecca Soza at 907-523-2334 or rsoza@jedc.org or visit stemak.org.