Student Success
Wake Tech Named National Finalist in Community College Innovation Challenge
RALEIGH, N.C. (April 28, 2026) – A team of Wake Tech students has been selected as a national finalist in the 2026 Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC), a prestigious competition sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The student team was chosen for its innovative project, Grid Guard AI, an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve power grid reliability by analyzing images and video of utility infrastructure and generating real-time, prioritized maintenance reports. The solution aims to help power providers identify problems faster, reduce outage frequency and strengthen grid resilience, particularly during and after severe weather events.
The Wake Tech finalist team includes:
- Bethany Arielle Hill, Computer Programming and Data Science
- Han Nyan, Business Administration
- Cale Michael Rogoyski, Computer Programming
As a CCIC finalist, the Wake Tech team will head to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Innovation Challenge Boot Camp, June 8–11. The boot camp provides hands-on training in innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic communication. Finalist teams will compete through poster sessions and pitch presentations, with top teams earning cash awards.
For the 2026 competition, CCIC teams were challenged to develop STEM-based solutions to real-world problems of local to global significance, while evaluating societal impact, feasibility and real-world implementation. Wake Tech's project was recognized for addressing a critical infrastructure challenge affecting millions of households nationwide.
"Reliable electricity is fundamental to daily life, yet severe weather continues to expose vulnerabilities in our power grid," said team advisor Emmie Mercer, associate dean of Information Technology at Wake Tech. "This student team identified a real industry gap and proposed a forward-thinking solution with strong potential to improve safety, reliability and quality of life."
The Grid Guard AI project was inspired in part by recent major weather events, including winter storms affecting the East Coast and Hurricane Helene's impact on western North Carolina, as well as industry research showing that weather-related power outages cost the U.S. economy an estimated $150 billion annually. Through conversations with industry professionals, the team identified the manual analysis of vast amounts of visual inspection data as a major bottleneck in grid maintenance.
Wake Tech students traveled to Charlotte to work alongside Duke Energy's aerial team, which provided insights into industry practices and emerging technologies while outlining critical gaps shaping the industry.
If implemented, Grid Guard AI could support utilities by shortening analysis time, improving preventative maintenance and reducing outage duration and frequency. The team proposes measuring impact using standard utility reliability metrics, such as the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), along with customer satisfaction and cost-efficiency measures.
The Community College Innovation Challenge is a national competition designed to foster STEM innovation and entrepreneurship among community college students while strengthening connections between education, industry and real-world problem solving.
