Mini-Grants for Innovation Projects

Mini-Grants for Innovation Projects is sponsored by NITIC (National Information, Technology, and Innovation Center). NITIC offers mini-grants to community colleges for advancing technician-level education in emerging IT and advanced technology areas, including Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and IT Automation.

Mini-Grant Projects - NITIC Mini-Grants for Innovation Projects NITIC is continually looking for ways to support expanding technician-level curriculum in emerging job clusters. This includes, but is not limited to, the following potential fields: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), IT Automation, Quantum Computing, DevOps, FinTech, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Encryption Technologies.

Some of these areas have seen incremental progress across community colleges, and others are newly emerging and require additional support as their demand grows. NITIC will support the cultivation and development of new initiatives by offering emerging IT mini grants. Those colleges that are awarded are encouraged to plan for a future ATE proposal.

NITIC offers support with developing ATE proposals including connecting project teams to ATE mentoring resources. Application opens April 13, 2026 . Deadline for submission is June 8th .

Complete Online Application Submit narrative, budget information, and letter of support Please reach out to nitic@cscc. edu for application help. Final award determined by NITIC leadership – July 20th Award period: September 1, 2026 – August 31, 2027 Funding not awarded during annual open call can be awarded on a rolling basis based on merit and alignment to NITIC focus areas.

2025-2026 Innovation Projects Awarded Project Lead: Bilal Abu Bakr Project Name: Securing Autonomous AI-to-AI Communication through a Zero-Trust Framework Synopsis: The Securing Autonomous AI-to-AI Communication project gives students hands-on, real-world experience with AI and cybersecurity by building and testing their solutions using Python, learning how to check identities, detecting bad behavior, and designing safe APIs.

Project Lead: Glenn Kimball Project Name: Perpetual AI Skill Development through Narrow AI Implementation for Student and Workforce Development Synopsis: The Perpetual AI Skill Development project guides students to build a focused, custom AI model then train it with content from their own class(es), including syllabi, lecture notes, lab content, and instructions.

Cuyahoga Community College Project Lead: Matthew Crowley Project Name: GUIDE-STEM: Generative Understanding for Instructional Development and Education for STEM-Based Programs Synopsis: This project creates GUIDE-STEM, a prototype system that demonstrates the feasibility of creating school- and program-specific, on-device fine-tuned large language models (LLMs), providing students with a virtual mentor that is tailored to their program of study, enabling just-in-time academic support aligned with their courses and college resources.

Forsyth Tech Community College Project Lead: Thomas Brown Project Name: Forsyth Tech ITP Club – AI Explorers: A Program in Artificial Intelligence for High School Seniors and Community College Students Synopsis: The program introduces students from a variety of academic backgrounds to artificial intelligence through hands-on activities using Raspberry Pi computers and camera modules in a one-day camp-style event led by community college students as co-instructors.

Project Name: AI Help Desk Training Environment Synopsis: This project will create a hands-on learning laboratory where students in Help Desk certificate and A. A. S.

degree programs will build, deploy, and train an open-source AI system to function as a specialized help desk solution.

Project Lead: Vanessa Cox Project Name: Empowering 2-Year College Students to Leverage AI in Their Education and Careers Synopsis: The pilot project will consist of a minimum of 20 students completing online modules in AI’s general and ethical usage; pre- and post-assessments will provide data to determine if students learned new ways to incorporate AI into their education and future career fields, which field of study made the most significant gains, and if students in these fields benefit from additional AI training in best practices.

Project Name: AI-Integrated Micro Credentials for Technician-Level Programs Synopsis: Building on the progress of an AI Summer Institute offered during June 2025, this project will provide resources for faculty to develop and pilot AI-integrated micro credentials that embed workforce-aligned competencies into technician-level programs.

Sam Houston State University Project Lead: Faruk Yildiz Project Name: Enhancement, Security and Vulnerability Assessment, and Forensic Analysis of SCADA/ICS Syst Synopsis: The project will conduct a research study through enhancing the SCADA/ICS lab’s architecture and provide student learning focused on industrial automation and control systems specifically for penetration testing, vulnerability testing, and forensics.

2024-2025 Innovation Projects Awarded Bluegrass Community and Technical College Project Lead: Lauren Campbell Project Name: AI Future League: Assessing AI Skills and Curriculum Needs Through Cross-Disciplinary Collaborative Problem-Solving Synopsis: Bluegrass Community and Technical College will create a gamified project that will expose trainees to a series of challenges emulat ing real-world problems , requir ing them to use newly emergent AI tools to propose solutions in collaboration with their teammates.

Forsyth Tech Community College Project Lead: Thomas Brown Project Name: Career Exploration in IoT with Automation, Cybersecurity and Robotics Synopsis: Forsyth will provide an engaging educational experience for teachers, college students, and K-12 students through a series of two to three-hour workshops over 12 months using the Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit.

Grand Rapids Community College Project Lead: Jonnathan Resendiz Project Name: AI Capstone Project for Technician Education: Solving Real-World Problems with Industry Data Synopsis: Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) will develop a Capstone Course in AI/ML Ops to provide students with hands-on experience in managing, deploying, and automating machine learning models.

Johnston Community College Project Name: AI Program Development Synopsis: Johnston Community College (JCC) will create accessible AI education to meet North Carolina’s growing workforce needs through course development, professional development, and recruitment efforts .

Lake Washington Institute of Technology Project Lead: Marcelo Guerra Hahn Project Name: Flipped Classroom with ChatGPT Synopsis: LWTech will enhance a programming course by integrating ChatGPT into a flipped classroom model. ChatGPT will be used to facilitate student learning outside the classroom, enabling more in-depth, hands-on coding projects and problem-solving during class time .

Project Name: Artificial Intelligence Summer Institute Synopsis: North Arkansas College will host an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summer Institute for faculty professional development address ing key issues including implementation of curricular updates, challenges with few AI-trained educators, limited hands-on AI learning opportunities, and a need for increased alignment with industry requirements.

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