2022 Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC)

The 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.

The Innovation Boot Camp will be held as an in-person event in the Washington, D.C., area on June 13-16, 2022. 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.

AACC is pleased to announce the 12 finalist teams selected for this year’s competition.

●       Bergen Community College (New Jersey)
Project: The ScanCan: The Intelligent Recycling Bin

●       College of Central Florida (Florida)
Project: True Wireless ECG

●       Columbus State Community College (Ohio)
Project: Columbus Kinesthetics

●       Des Moines Area Community College (Iowa)
Project: The Social Student app

●       Front Range Community College (Colorado)
Project: The Orca Oil-Separating & Bio-Filtration Vessel

●       Linn-Benton Community College (Oregon)
Project: The Portable Air Shield System.

●       Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts)
Project: STEM-finder

●       Ohlone College (California)
Project: Wave Riders

●       Polk State College (Florida)

Project: Osmotically Reversing the Effects of Microplastics

●       San Antonio College (Texas)
Project: Ocular Horizon

●       Santa Monica College (California)

Project: Treatment for HIV-1 Using LRAs, NK-Cells, bNABs

●       SUNY Orange (New York)
Project: Solar Absorption Repository

To view the press release for the CCIC finalist teams, click here.