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IS&T Recognizes IT Innovation at 7th Annual IT Innovation Cup

The IT Innovation Cup is an annual, seven-month long competition between Omaha area high schools which involves educational workshops, open house receptions and ongoing student competition.

Two students working at a white board.

Students work in an IT Innovation class at IS&T.

Presented by First Data and Werner Enterprises, the IT Innovation Cup is an annual, seven-month long competition between Omaha area high schools which involves educational workshops, open house receptions and ongoing student competition which culminate with the IT Innovation Cup award.

The final event is typically celebrated with an in-person event with community participation, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) transitioning to remote learning, the Cup’s organizers decided to move the final event to a virtual one.

Every one of our judges, especially the people who work in this field, were blown away with the quality of the work and the innovative ideas that the team developed.

 Derek Babb

The challenge presented this year, “Innovations in Micro-Mobility,” encouraged students to innovate transportation. Derek Babb, cybersecurity instructor at the UNO College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T), led this year’s Cup.

“I’m on the board of Mode-Shift Omaha, they’re a multi-mobile advocacy group. My innovation was how can we make it for public transport to work better, especially around that last mile,” Babb said. “Really trying to get students to think about what they could do so you don't always rely on an automobile.”

Now in its 7th year, the IT Innovation Cup the final presentations were due in a video format to organizers. The projects were rated according to specific rubric questions according to:

Grand Prize - Best project overall based on the judging. Team will receive $2,500 and a traveling trophy.

Caption Awards - The grand prize winner is not eligible for the caption awards. Each caption award comes with a $500 prize.

  • Best Technical Innovation - Team that produced the most technically sophisticated product.
  • Best Business Plan - Team whose project would be most likely to actually be a successful business based on their business plan.
  • Biggest Overall Impact - Team whose project would have the most impact on the targeted group if it were successfully implemented.

“Every one of our judges, especially the people who work in this field, were blown away with the quality of the work and the innovative ideas that the team developed,” Babb said.

The IT Innovation Cup aims to engage Nebraska high school students in a competition that focuses on creativity, innovation and technology. Finalists were chosen on their ability to solve the current year’s problem requirements in the most innovative way, which also best uses information technology.

The 2019-2020 IT Innovation Cup is sponsored by Fiserv and Werner Enterprises.

Following high school teams were the final winners for the 2019-2020 IT Innovation Cup:

Overall Winner:
Millard West, 3.6 Designs

Caption Awards:

Technical Innovation:
Lincoln East

Business Plan
Millard West, RIDR

Overall Impact:
Omaha Duchesne

About UNO’s College of Information Science and Technology
The College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha represents the joint efforts of the University of Nebraska, the State of Nebraska, and private industry to address the growing global needs for knowledgeable professionals in Information Technology (IT). The College was established at UNO in 1996 to meet the growing demand for IT graduates in the Omaha metropolitan and surrounding area.