Ky Holland, June 17, 2026

Xprize in Alaska is testing autonomous wildfire-response technologies this week.

House District 9 community activist Cindy Kinard alerted me to the testing in Nenana. We spoke with Lori Townsend a few months back regarding the need to get the existing and much-needed fire detection and suppression potential into the news/public eye. Here is a recent show she did on the of our current wildfire season. https://alaskapublic.org/programs/talk-of-alaska/2026-06-09/what-you-need-to-know-about-wildfire-season-talk-of-alaska

HJR15, which I sponsored and passed in the first session, recognized the importance of new technologies for detection and response. I’m excited to see Alaska as a testing ground for emerging new solutions that might benefit our communities.

Here is more on one of the teams, LA-located Kaizen Aerospace folks who have been very busy preparing for the X-Prize competition that first put them in the news for the demo they helped with for the LA area school kids entering the competition.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/students-develop-high-tech-fight-wildfires-128943477

Challenge-based innovation is a powerful way to engage innovative people with the challenges that matter to a community. I helped launch the Community Challenge program at UAF in 2018 and continue to look for ways to support Alaskans as they engage with challenges, including those promoted by XPRIZE. I hope this work in Alaska will both elevate our approaches to advanced wildfire detection and inspire innovative Alaskans to look for challenges and be part of the solution. http://akv3.com/create/ak_challenges

https://www.xprize.org/news/finals-testing-autonomous-wildfire-response

Ky