Four engineering students from Dallas College aim to make flying safer—and their proposed solution has elevated them to the final round of the national Community College Innovation Challenge, set to take place this June in Washington, D.C.

Dallas College’s Mang Cin, Khai Huynh, Taylor Hill, and Christopher Zuniga were selected along with 11 other teams nationwide by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

LIDAR-based system keeps pilots aware of surroundings

The Dallas College team’s solution, AVIADAR, is an innovative LiDAR-based system that provides pilots with real-time alerts about their surroundings. The aviation safety solution aims to reduce fatalities and set better standards for accident prevention.

Their advisor on the project is LaTasha Taylor Starr, CEO of the ESTe²M  Builders education program and former engineering faculty member at Dallas College’s Cedar Valley campus.

STEM solutions for real-world problems

Now in its ninth year, the CCIC competition seeks to strengthen entrepreneurial thinking among community college students by challenging them to develop STEM-based solutions to real-world problems. The challenge also enables students to discover and demonstrate their capacity to use STEM to make a difference in the world and translate that knowledge into action, the AACC said.

Teams consist of two to four students and a faculty or administrator team mentor. The finalists will attend an Innovation Boot Camp in June, where they will interact with entrepreneurs and experts in business planning, stakeholder engagement, strategic communication, and marketplace dynamics.

The Boot Camp will culminate in a Student Innovation Poster Session on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with STEM leaders and congressional stakeholders. A pitch presentation will then determine the first, second, and third-place winning teams.

“The finalist projects showcase the incredible talent and creativity of the nation’s community college students,” Walter G. Bumphus, president and CEO of AACC, said in a statement. “I’m proud to stand with our partners at the National Science Foundation to provide this forum to advance these student leaders as they become our future scientists, entrepreneurs, and engineers addressing real-world issues and positively impacting our daily lives.”

The other 11 team finalists include, per the AACC:

Bergen Community College (New Jersey)
Project: Pop-Up Hydroponic Farms Made From Recycled Materials: To address the lack of access to produce in urban communities, the Bergen Community College team designed a modular hydroponic grow system using recycled shipping pallets that can be stacked together inside vacant properties to create “Pop-Up” hydroponic farms.

Coalinga College (California)
Project: The Dream Team Burn Care Innovation: The Coalinga College team seeks to improve the treatment of burn-related injuries through the development of a burn relief spray with hydrogel technology that soothes pain, promotes faster healing, and prevents infection.

Des Moines Area Community College (Iowa)
Project: Smart Tapering Vaporizer with AI-Coaching – AI-CQD: AI-CQD is a Smart Tapering Vaporizer to address nicotine addiction. The team’s tech-driven solution integrates real-time habit analysis, psychological reinforcement, and customizable tapering to address evolving user needs enabling a structured, adaptive quitting journey.

Henry Ford College (Michigan)
Project: SunSync – Smart Blind System for Comfort and Energy Saving: The Henry Ford College team designed SunSync, a self-powered smart blind system that harvests solar energy, uses sensors, and applies machine learning to improve energy efficiency, comfort, and privacy.

Holyoke Comunity College (Massachusetts)
Project: Green Computer Processing – Reducing Data Energy Consumption: AI-powered data centers are projected to significantly increase global electricity demand. The Holyoke Community College team built a closed-loop cooling system that recaptures lost energy, reduces waste, and cuts costs while setting a new standard for sustainable data processing.

Houston Community College (Texas)
Project: The NanoSense Mask: The Houston Community College team has designed the NanoSense Mask to aid firefighters. The mask is equipped with sensors that detect harmful gases and monitor firefighters’ health in real time.

Irvine Valley College (California)
Project: Defend LA – Automatic Fire Prevention System: To address the surge in wildfires, the Irvine Valley College team proposes an automatic and pressurized hose system that deploys fire retardant gel around the exterior of a structure.

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College (Virginia)
Project: Automated Street-Cleaning Robot: The J. Sargeant Reynolds team proposes the design of an automated street-cleaning robot equipped with sensors and smart navigation to keep public spaces cleaner with less human effort.

Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts)
Project: InSight: InSight is a wearable navigation system disguised as sleek headphones incorporating sensors, LiDAR technology, and AI-powered imaging cameras to assist the blind with navigation and spatial awareness.

Perimeter College at Georgia State University (Georgia)
Project: RoyaNest – Neonatal Thermoregulation Made Simple: RoyaNest is a low-cost device designed to address birth asphyxia, which uses layered evaporative cooling to maintain a baby’s body temperature in the therapeutic range for 72 hours, improving infant survival rates.

Tulsa Community College (Oklahoma)
Project: Portal – An Integrated Drone Delivery Solution: The Integrated Drone Delivery Portal is a smart-home feature enabling secure, efficient drone deliveries. Built into homes during construction, it includes a motorized external hatch, theft-resistant storage, and an interior retrieval door.

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