Where Bold Ideas Meet Arctic Reality

RESPEC engineers work every day on the challenges that define life in Alaska: permafrost foundations, impacts of harsh environments on infrastructure, logistics and access challenges in remote locations, air quality, and communities that depend on air cargo and other limited transportation modes when the road system ends or becomes unreliable. Our work on these challenges makes the Arctic Innovation Competition (AIC) feel less like a sponsorship and more like a natural fit.

Every spring in Fairbanks, engineers, inventors, students, and dreamers pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. Some come with prototypes. Others arrive with a sketch and a story. All of them are trying to solve a real problem.

The AIC, run by the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Business and Security Management, has been Alaska’s original idea contest since 2009. It awards more than $45,000 in prizes across three age divisions and draws entries from across Alaska and beyond. The competition welcomes ideas of all kinds, from apps and services to products and inventions, judged on innovation, feasibility, and potential.

RESPEC has been part of AIC for several years, sponsoring the Arctic Kicker, a $2,000 prize for the best idea that improves life in the Arctic. We also judge the main division. We show up not just to evaluate, but to help competitors strengthen their ideas and understand what it takes to move from concept to market.

“This is Alaska’s innovation engine,” says David Sandberg, Alaska Land Development Program Manager in our Fairbanks office, who has served as a main division judge for several years. “It turns bold ideas into real solutions, which is one of the reasons we became engineers in the first place. I love seeing the next generation of thinkers solving problems for our future.”

RESPEC has deep roots in Alaska, with offices in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, Palmer, and Soldotna. Our teams work across transportation, water, facilities, land development, and environmental services throughout the state, including in rural and remote communities where roads end, budgets are often tight, and the margin for error is small. We know what it takes to build on permafrost-affected ground, serve communities with limited transportation options, and get the work done when the weather, terrain, and short construction season are all working against you.

The problems that AIC competitors tackle are ones we work on every day. Seeing creative people bring fresh thinking to them is exactly why we support an event that champions innovation.

Last year’s main division winners, Ryan Tinsley and Stacey Fritz, addressed one of the most pressing issues in rural Alaska with their Alaska Adaptable Kit Foundation System: how to build stable foundations in permafrost zones without depending on a road system or seasonal barge schedule. The modular system is designed to arrive by air cargo and be assembled quickly in a short construction window. The team took the judges’ feedback to heart and continued to develop the structural design and overall concept. They have since partnered with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center and are still growing.

The 2024 winner, Finn Oestgaard, tackled remote logistics with his FINN storage system, a super-durable Arctic tote built for extreme conditions that is waterproof, floatable, and tough enough to be towed behind a snow machine. The year before, Serena Allen’s AirVitalize addressed Fairbanks’ persistent winter air quality challenges by filtering harmful particulate matter out of outdoor air, a real health concern in a city that regularly deals with wood smoke inversions in winter. She is still developing her product today.

Judging well requires evaluating the full picture. An idea needs to be technically sound, feasible, and marketable. David’s background in both engineering and business means the panel can assess the concept and the case for it.

“We want to see the connection between engineering, resources, and the market,” he says. “That’s where an idea becomes a viable product.”

Good ideas need more than prize money. They need people who understand the problem well enough to ask the right questions, spot the gaps, and help an innovator see the path forward. That is what RESPEC brings to AIC, and it is what we do for our clients across Alaska every day. As Alaska’s challenges evolve, so will the ideas, and we’re committed to helping the next generation turn them into solutions that last.

The 2026 AIC finals are April 18 in Fairbanks, and we’ll be there. Learn more at the AIC website.