NACCU Innovative Technology Award

About the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

The Innovative Technology Award is awarded annually to an institution that has introduced a unique technology-based solution to a problem or opportunity. The Innovative Technology Award recognizes and celebrates the success of a NACCU institutional member that has implemented innovative uses of technology in support of services used by identification and transaction system programs.

Nominations

Nominations are open!

Submit your nomination here.

Submissions Deadline: January 31, 2025

Details

Award Eligibility

Award submissions may be self-nominated or nominated by another NACCU institutional member or by a NACCU corporate member
Nominee must be a member of NACCU to be eligible.
A school cannot win the same award two years in a row.
Awards Committee members are ineligible for this award while serving.
The innovative technology implementation demonstrates merit as being innovative but viable and can be easily interpreted.

Nomination/Selection Criteria

The nominated Institution representative must submit the materials outlined below.

Describe the challenge and/or the opportunity
Describe the concept of what is attempted/undertaken and what makes it innovative
Detail the steps taken to determine a solution based on the innovation being undertaken
Provide information about the evaluation of the solution including measured results
Describe the next steps and conclusion as well as lessons learned

Award Selection

The Awards Committee Chair will determine whether the entry meets the eligibility requirements as well as obtaining any required supplemental documents. Each qualifying submission will be scored using a common scoring method individually by Awards Committee members. The Chair will collect scoring from committee members and tally a total score for each submission. The submission receiving top score will be the recipient.

NACCU Innovative Technology Award Recipients

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

2024 recipient, NACCU Innovative Technology Award

The development of the app began with a desire to meet students where they are—on their phones. With the
smartphone being the native habitat for students, the university needed a comprehensive university app, rather than a collection of vendor apps. Rokwire is available for free to universities, non-profits, governmental agencies, businesses, and individuals. It is the first of its kind, allowing institutions to collaborate in a way more concrete than ever before. Using Rokwire, any institution can create a comprehensive campus app that includes services such as virtual ID cards, mobile credentials, dining locations and menus, campus events, bus schedules, class schedules, campus wayfinding, and access to wellness resources. MORE

The University of Georgia

2023 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

UGA made the advancement of card technology a priority, forming a special committee consisting of representatives from different departments on campus to research secure credential solutions and launch an in-depth cost analysis. The committee determined that the best way forward was to move to an encrypted smart card on an open platform with non-proprietary interoperability - a solution that would give the university ownership of their own encryption keys . MORE

The University of Texas at Austin

2022 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

When the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the University of Texas at Austin campus to online learning, the ID Center rapidly executed portions of its modernization vision to support remote teaching and learning, a remote workforce, and essential onsite personnel while keeping employee safety paramount. MORE

Georgian College

2021 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

Georgian College took on a challenge that sought to replace transit stickers by seamlessly distributing a digital bus UPass to their students each semester. Normally they have had a long line of students waiting to receive their sticker passes. MORE

Clemson University

2020 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

Clemson University began upgrading their access control infrastructure and POS system in 2016 in preparation for launching mobile credentials. Their exemplary foresight and planning allowed them to be one of the first institutions to launch Apple Wallet in Fall 2019. Additionally, the student mobile IDs were integrated into their existing university app, eliminating the need for students to download a third-party app in order to take advantage of mobile access. MORE

University of California, Merced

2019 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

iCare offers students immediate, private, and automated access to request meal funds equivalent to a full week of meals accessible from any device, anywhere, anytime. iCare is integrated with UC Merced’s CatCard campus card systems, and provides tracking, demographics, data analysis, and trends of student donations and requests to management. MORE

University of Montana

2018 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

The Unclaimed Property Web Application is innovative as it combines many traditionally manual processes into one comprehensive automated process. Customer service has been improved, and the time spent on inactive accounts has been reduced to under two hours per month. Additionally, it enabled UM to be fully compliant with state law regarding unclaimed property. MORE

Northeastern University

2017 recipient of the NACCU Innovative Technology Award

Northeastern University’s old system of combination locks and in-person locker reservations needed to change. Warren Lord and his team used their experience with residence hall doors to develop an online locker reservation system. The new system used campus cards to access the lockers. MORE

2016: University of Ottawa

2015: Vanderbilt University

2014: University of Victoria

2013: Illinois Institute of Technology

2012: Arizona State University

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