Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC)
Advancing Student Innovation & Impact
Submissions open for the 2025 CCIC in January 2025!
Check out a video on the CCIC here.
The Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC) is led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is a national competition where community college student teams, working with a faculty or administrator mentor, use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to innovate solutions to real-world problems; participate in an Innovation Boot Camp; and compete for cash awards.
AACC is pleased to announce that planning is underway to hold the Innovation Boot Camp in Washington, D.C. on June 9-12, 2025—and full travel support will be provided to the finalist teams to attend.
The Boot Camp provides professional development, mentoring, and coaching designed to build strategic communication and entrepreneurial skills to help students advance their innovations in both the private and public sectors. The event culminates in a poster session and engagement opportunity with STEM leaders and Congressional stakeholders, and a pitch presentation in front of a panel of industry and entrepreneurial professionals to determine the first, second, and third place winning teams.
The national CCIC is designed to enable community college students to discover and demonstrate their capacity to use STEM to make a difference in the world and to translate that knowledge into action.
About the 2024 CCIC
AACC congratulates Perimeter College at Georgia State University (First Place), Dallas College (Second Place), County College of Morris (Third Place), and all the finalist teams for their participation in the 2024 CCIC!
· Coalinga College (California)
Project: Got Calcium: The New Battery Innovation
· Columbus State Community College (Ohio)
Project: Aquavive’s Ripple Effect: Transforming Water Protection
· County College of Morris (New Jersey) – 3rd Place Winner!
Project: Using Molecular Solar Thermal Systems as a Solar Alternative
· Dallas College (Texas) – 2nd Place Winner!
Project: Autonomous Monitoring for Blaze Emergency Response (AMBER)
· Henry Ford College (Michigan)
Project: Stay Vigilant with Source Alert
· Houston Community College (Texas)
Project: The MaxCap Supercapacitor
· Hudson County Community College (New Jersey)
Project: S.E.E. (Sound Enabled Emplacement)
· Itawamba Community College (Mississippi)
Project: ViruShield: Next-Generation Care for HIV Patients
· Perimeter College at Georgia State University (Georgia) – First Place Winner!
Project: Gorginea Care
· Red Rocks Community College (Colorado)
Project: Bloom Buster
· University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville (Arkansas)
Project: IntelliCline – Smart Ramp
· Virginia Western Community College (Virginia)
Project: Plastic Up Cycling
To view the press release for the CCIC top three teams, click here.
To view the press release for the CCIC finalist teams, click here.