The Mitkof Middle School robotics team is making their final preparations for the upcoming robotics state tournament after placing first in the innovative project category at the regional competition in December.

The team claimed first after wowing the judges with their concept to streamline loading and unloading at the Alaska Marine Lines facility in Petersburg.

The students first got the idea of doing their project with AML after Kurt Kivisto gave them a tour of AML's local warehouses and told them that they had noticed an inefficiency when they were moving cargo, according to Beau Ward w...