Valley represented at state robotics championships

FAIRBANKS — They may not be Transformers or The Terminator, but 52 robots invaded the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Patty Center recently as high school students around Alaska swarmed the campus to compete in the State Robotics Championships.

The championship is sponsored in part by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) a nonprofit organization with a mission to “transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders,” FIRST founder Dean Kamen said.

“Alaska has the highest number of teams participating in a FIRST statewide championship in the nation,” said Rabecca Parks, the statewide coordinator.

Every October, students from around the world are presented with a game and challenged to design, build and program a robot to successfully navigate obstacles and outwit their opponents. This year’s game was “Bowled Over,” and required students to manipulate bowling balls, racquetballs and crates in an effort to score the most points.

Burchell High School is one of the up-and-coming robotics programs in the state. During the past four months they have participated in two regional tournaments as well as the state championship in Fairbanks.

“We use the robotics class to implement our STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) program,” said principal Adam Mokelke. “It’s really impressive the amount of progress our students have made in such a short time.”

“I’ve always thought robots were cool and plan to learn more about technology and robotics in the future,” added student Dylan Rouska. “Seeing what our team could design and build was really fun and challenging.”

Many of the teams at the state championship had to overcome their own share of challenges. The Schrodinger’s Hat team from Fairbanks was matched against the Porhtal team of Fairbanks in the finals when a crutial robotics part malfuntioned. Demonstrating gracious professionalism, Porhtal loaned the part to its competitor so the match could continue.

“It are those moments of gracious professionalism that stand out the most and really demonstrate what FIRST is all about,” Parks said.

The four Alaska teams that will receive invitations to the national championships in St. Louis are:

• Inspire Award winner 4,539, Sourdoughs from South Anchorage High School.

• 2nd Place Inspire 3,360, Team Caffeine from East Anchorage High School.

• Winning Alliance first pick 3,259, Perpetual Motion Squad from Lathrop High School.

• The winning alliance captain was Porhtal from Fairbanks, which will also travel to the national championship.