Team Members:
Nikira Lane President
In addition to her duties as president, Nikira works on the build team. She is in her 6th year with FIRST robotics and has several years of experience in FLL, FTC, and FRC. When not building robots, Nikira enjoys hunting and fishing, as well as raising bees, chickens, goats, and other assorted animals! Nikira is a senior in high school, and is planning to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering.
Will Shumway Treasurer
In addition to managing team fundraising and budget items, Will is a part of the team's build department. He has had 6 years of experience with FIRST, including FLL, FTC, and FRC. Will also enjoys hunting, skiing, fishing, snow machining, a little flying, and the occasional gaming session with friends. After high school, he plans to pursue an engineering degree, and hopes to become a commercial pilot as well.
Alex Lintelman Lead Electrician
Alex has 3 years of experience with FIRST robotics and currently contributes FRC 568's build, electronics, and CAD departments. He loves to spend time fishing, hiking, skiing, and working on puzzles. He spends summers working on his family’s dairy farm. Alex plans to pursue a career in agricultural engineering.
Darin Hanley Build & Programming Teams
Darin is new to FRC this year, and is still exploring which department he wants to invest more of his time into. He has 6 years of experience in FLL, and 2 year of FLL Jr experience. Outside of robotics, Darin is involved in competitive shooting. He plans to pursue a degree in engineering some day.
Taylor Johnson Outreach & Team Image Team
Taylor has been involved with FIRST for 2 years, in both FTC and FRC. She is currently involved in helping coordinate outreach efforts, and team organization and image. She spent 5 years living in Germany, and plans to become an engineer some day.
Brody Aldrich Build Team
Brody is very excited for his very first year with FIRST, and has joined primarily with the build team, although he likes to dabble in programming. His goal is to become an engineer, and he takes pride in his ability to do almost any job.
Toya Takahashi Programming Team
This is Toya's first year with our team and with FIRST, and he brings a love of programming to the table. In fact, programming is central to a lo of what he does; his hobbies besides robotics include watching netflix and youtube and programming arduino and on a raspberry pi.
Josh Bell Vice President
In addition to his post as VP, Josh works on the Build team. He has spent over 11 years in FIRST programs, having participated in robotics since Jr. FLL. He likes to bake, hike, do math, and sleep. He plans to pursue a degree in chemical engineering some day, and has high hopes of attending the Danish Technological Institute.
Caden Boyer Communications Lead
Caden is in his 12th year of robotics experience with FIRST. He runs the team's blogs and social media pages, as well as making contributions to the outreach team. He like writing, Pokemon, drawing, music, D&D, the outdoors, and a lot of other stuff. He also does a bit of coding for fun. After high school, Caden plans to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks and major in Wildlife Biology.
Matthew Johnson Lead Programmer
Matthew participated in FLL for 2 years, and joined FRC for the first time this year. He has stepped into the role of lead programmer right away! He also plays hockey and mentors an FLL team. His two younger sisters are involved in FLL and also play hockey.
Eric Marshall Media & Build Teams
Eric has had 4 years of experience with FLL. Last year, he joined 568 as a Nerdlet, and joined the teams as a full team member now that he is in high school. He contributes to the build team, and also produces a lot of the teams media. Outside of robotics, he likes snowboarding.
Griffin Bailly Build Team
Griffin has been involved in FIRST for 7 years, in both FLL and Jr. FLL. This is his first year on the FRC team, after shadowing the team as a "nerdlet" last year. He contributes to the build team. Fun fact--Griffin has 11 siblings!
Ethan Beckett Build Team
Stay tuned for Ethan's Bio
Erica Stryker Outreach & Team Image
Stay tuned for Erica's Bio
Alexa Todd Secretary
Alexa has had 8 years of experience with FIRST in both FLL and FTC. This is her first year in FRC, and she enjoys being part of the outreach, build, and programming departments. She participates in the Dimond Engineering Academy at Dimond High School. Outside of robotics, Alexa likes painting, writing, and drawing, and spending time with her two dogs. Alexa hopes to attend the University of Waterloo after high school.
Lawton Skaling Build Lead & Safety Captain
Lawton is in his 3rd year of FIRST experience, with 3 years of FTC and 2 years of FRC experience. He contributes to the build, CAD, safety, and fiscal departments. He loves 3D printing, Elon Musk, Taco Bell, Arduino, raspberry pi, math, and RC plane flying. He's also in Mu Alpha Theta math society, Key club honor society, and the Ocean Bowl team. After high school, Lawton hopes to major in engineering, and is interested in a career in the private space industry.
Taylor Zagrocki Outreach, Communications, Team Identity
Taylor is a senior at Dimond High School. This is her first year involved with FIRST, and she is a contributor to the outreach, communications, and team identity departments. She comes to FRC as a package deal with Taylor J. Welcome to FRC, Taylors!
Jayden Gray Programming & Electrical Team
Jayden is in his first year with FRC, and contributes to both the programming and electrical team. Outside of robotics, he's a gamer. After high school, he plans to attend a technical college.
Cody Bryden Build Team
Cody has been involved with FIRST for 7 years, as part of an FLL team and then as a mentor and volunteer. Despite being located 120 miles from the team's base station, Cody contributes to the design/build team. Cody is an avid fisherman and mountain biker. He hopes to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks some day to study engineering.
TJ Hatch Build Team
Stay tuned for TJ's Bio
Mitchell Todd Build Team
Mitchell has been heavily involved with FIRST for eight years, six of them with FLL, and two in both FTC and FRC. Our build and CAD teams greatly benefit from having him around, and its no wonder, because robotics is what he loves to do. he looks to become a mecatronics engineer, has built his own computer and enjoys CADing.
Mentors:
Wade Roach Coach
Wade is an engineering teacher at Dimond High School in Anchorage. He has 19 years of experience with FIRST, including experience in all four programs! He contributes expertise in building and outreach aspects of the team, as well as general team administration. He is married to a robotics coach at a rival school! Outside of robotics, he also enjoys soccer, D&D, science fiction reading, hiking, climbing, technology, dreaming, Rush, singularity, virtual worlds, Ai, VR, simulations, Lord of the Rings, science, and many more things. Some day, he hopes to build a brain and upload his consciousness to it.
Steve Ives Mentor
Steve has 7 years of experience with FIRST and currently serves as Alaska's FLL head judge, and FTC judge advisor. This is his first year mentoring FRC 568--welcome, Steve! Steve is a sci-fi nerd, and enjoys cruising, travel, food, and LEGOs.
Cooper Danner Mentor
Cooper has volunteered at FIRST events for 2 years and is in his first year mentoring the FRC team. He is a senior in the mechanical engineering program at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and the vice-president of the UAA Robotics team. He mentors the FRC team in build concepts.
Vicki Nechodomu Coach
Vicki is the K-12 STEM Outreach Coordinator at the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Engineering. She has 12 years of experience with FIRST, as a coach, volunteer, and tournament director for FLL and FTC, and is in her second year working with FRC 568. She works with the team to develop organizational structure, project management, and leadership skills. She also contributes expertise in branding, marketing, and outreach. Outside of robotics, she enjoys hiking with her dog, and photography and filmmaking.
Birch Boyer Mentor
Birch has 15 years of experience with FIRST, including all 4 leagues! He is an alumnus of FRC 568 and is now a sophomore at the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Engineering. He remains involved with the team as a mentor, assisting with outreach, build, and CAD.
Lindsey Bohnert Electrical Engineering Mentor
Linsedy's Bio is Coming Soon!
Tina Lane Mentor
Tina is the mother of Nikira and acts as the team’s seamstress and occasional lunch provider. She graduated from Oregon State University(Go Beavs!!) with a degree in construction engineering management. Like Nikira, she loves to garden and spend time with all of the farms animals.
Danny Tix Programming Mentor
Danny serves as the team's programming mentor. He has 9 years of experience with FIRST, including FLL, FTC, and FRC. This year, he has focussed on on boarding a whole bunch of new programmers on FRC 568. He is an advocate for open source software.
Dale Rooney Build Mentor
Dale is a Maker with a focus on 3D printing and electronics. For Halloween several years ago, he printed a mount for a door magnet on his fence gate and lined the sidewalk with RGB LED strips. When trick-or-treaters opened the gate, the theme song from Nightmare Before Christmas started playing and the LEDs flashed in time to the music.
Janine Nesheim Hero Support
Kallam Anji Reddy said, "Everyone has a purpose in life and a unique talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals." My plan is to serve others to the best of my abilities, and enjoy my life.I like to roller-skate. I enjoy OK Go and Debussy. My favorite movie is Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Or Speed Racer. I can't decide. I went to college on a Music scholarship. I loved being in Music but changed majors so I could pursue my love for science. I love robots. It all started with Isaac Asimov...