The American Association of Community Colleges, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, announced that it has selected 12 finalist teams to advance to the June 2024 final round of the Community College Innovation Challenge—and one of the teams is from right here in North Texas.

A team from Dallas College is among the 12 finalists, advancing to the final round for its project “Autonomous Monitoring for Blaze Emergency Response (AMBER).”

An early detection system that can spot fire risks before they get out of hand, AMBER uses infrared cameras and sensors to alert farmers and local authorities. When it’s combined with a third-party drone provider, AMBER can quickly track and mobilize a rapid fire response, preserving agricutural land from potentially devastating destruction.

Teams will attend an  ‘Innovation Boot Camp’ in June

Now in its eighth 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.” It 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.”

Teams consist of two to four students and a faculty or administrator team mentor. Finalists—including the Dallas College team—will attend an Innovation Boot Camp in June and 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 with STEM leaders and congressional stakeholders.

A final pitch presentation will determine the first, second, and third-place winning teams.

“Congratulations to the 2024 CCIC finalists,” Walter G. Bumphus, president and CEO of AACC, said in a statement. “Once again, I’m inspired by the incredible level of talent and creativity our community college students showcase through the CCIC. Along with our partners at the National Science Foundation, we know this program is a foundation for future scientists, entrepreneurs, and engineers and are very proud to shine the spotlight on these talented future leaders.”

Other finalist teams this year presented solutions for addressing clean water, renewable energy, HIV treatment, healthcare, and assistive technology devices. 

The other 11 finalists are:

Coalinga College (California)
Project: Got Calcium: The New Battery Innovation
The Coalinga College team seeks to switch from lithium to calcium batteries to improve cost-effectiveness, safety, and battery performance offering an eco-friendly alternative for energy storage solutions.

Columbus State Community College (Ohio)
Project: Aquavive’s Ripple Effect: Transforming Water Protection
Aquavive is a groundbreaking pollution detection buoy system that offers pristine, potable water accessible to all. Combined with a user-friendly app, Aquavive promotes environmental monitoring and STEM education with the goal of uniting communities to invest in clean water.

County College of Morris (New Jersey)
Project: Using Molecular Solar Thermal Systems as a Solar Alternative
The County College of Morris team proposes to safely and efficiently increase the world’s energy supply through a molecular solar thermal system. This system is non-toxic, cost-efficient, and can capture light energy as heat, and then convert stored heat as energy.

Henry Ford College (Michigan)
Project: Stay Vigilant with Source Alert
Source Alert is an application that connects to internet search engines and word/image processing services to detect the source of information and display it to the user in real-time. Source Alert can serve to raise public awareness to potential misinformation.

Houston Community College, TX
Project: The MaxCap Supercapacitor
MaxCap offers an energy storage technology solution for the electric vehicle market by introducing metal oxide-vertical polyaniline hybrid supercapacitors, which provide greater performance, sustainability, and cost-efficency than current energy storage options.

Hudson County Community College (New Jersey)
Project: S.E.E. (Sound Enabled Emplacement)
S.E.E. is an assistive technology device designed to guide visually impaired individuals to key areas in their home. Through the use of remote, users activate speakers to emit sounds for navigation, which allows for safe, confident, and independent movement.

Itawamba Community College (Mississippi)
Project: ViruShield: Next-Generation Care for HIV Patients
ViruShield is a subcutaneous pump that tests for HIV viral loads and administers doses of medication to an HIV-positive patient to help increase treatment compliance and prevent AIDs.

Perimeter College at Georgia State University (Georgia)
Project: Georgina Care
The Perimeter College team seeks to redesign cervical cancer screening by offering a noninvasive alternative to the speculum. This alternative makes screening more accessible and has the potential to impact cervical cancer mortality rates, especially in low-income countries.

Red Rocks Community College (Colorado)
Project: Bloom Buster
In all 50 states, harmful algae blooms represent an environmental issue that impacts human health and aquatic ecosystems. The Bloom Buster system can effectively remove suspended particles, algae, and other contaminants from lake water leading to water quality improvement.

University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville (Arkansas)
Project: IntelliCline – Smart Ramp
IntelliCline is a smart ramp solution that can adjust slope, height, and temperature to enhance accessibility for people with disabilities. By eliminating common barriers, IntelliCline improves quality of life and creates more inclusive communities.

Virginia Western Community College (Virginia)
Project: Plastic Up Cycling
The Virginia Western team proposes an affordable and sustainable way to reuse plastic through the development of a 3D filament printer, which turns recyclables into reinforced filament. The filament is being used to create specialized materials to rebuild a local school playground.

For updates about the 2024 Innovation Boot Camp and the winners, you can follow @Comm_College or visit www.aaccinnovationchallenge.com. 

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There’s been a lot of questions surrounding Jason Kidd’s decision to play small down the stretch of Game 4 against the Clippers, a game in which the Mavericks lost 116-111. James Harden had his floater looking like it was 2017 again, hitting 6 such shots in the 4th quarter, taking advantage of no real shot-blocking threat patrolling the paint as Maxi Kleber was playing center.

Even Bill Simmons wondered on his podcast Sunday night “Both teams have matchups against the other team that they really like… if you’re Dallas you could go ‘you know what, maybe we shouldn’t have had Kleber down the stretch, maybe we should play our bigs.’”

This brings up the question, will Jason Kidd change his late-game rotations?

From February 1st to the end of the regular season, a stretch of 34 games, the Mavericks’ most-played lineup in the fourth quarter was Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Josh Green, PJ Washington, and Maxi Kleber. That lineup played just 23 minutes in that time frame, a small sample size. Coach Kidd has continued to play with different lineups, trying to find 5-man units that work in different situations.

The lineup rolled out at the end of Game 4 was Doncic, Irving, Washington, Derrick Jones Jr., and Kleber; a lineup that played just 14 minutes in the 4th quarters of the regular season. In the 4th quarter of Game 4 alone, that second lineup played 10 minutes (all rotation data courtesy of the NBA).

In those 10 minutes, the Mavericks were +5, but a lot of that was that stretch from the 8-minute mark to when Kyrie Irving hit that impossible layup to put the Mavericks ahead with 2:15 remaining; a stretch where the Mavs outscored LA 19-5. The lineup was clearly working then, getting stops on one end and hitting shots on the other.

Over the last two minutes of Game 4, the Clippers outscored the Mavericks 12-6, with Harden hitting two of his floaters in that timeframe. The last one put Kleber in a tough situation if he stepped up to defend the shot, as Harden likely would’ve hit the lob pass over Kleber to Ivica Zubac, who was waiting in the dunker spot.

With two minutes left in the game, it can be hard to make that decision to change a lineup that had just outscored the Clippers by 14, even if playing Dereck Lively II or Daniel Gafford makes sense in hindsight. And yet, the Mavericks haven’t adjusted well all series to certain things, as former Maverick and current ESPN commentator JJ Redick talks about below.

Here is what Coach Kidd said after the game to reporters regarding the decision to stay small: “Understanding offensively, we needed to space the floor. Maxi (Kleber) did a really good job
there. Understanding the options we have of being able to play Maxi, being able to stretch the
floor was the option we went with. Living with 2s in this league doesn’t hurt you but 3s kill you
– and 3s killed us this afternoon. We’ve got to be better. When (James) Harden is taking 2s, it’s
better than him shooting the 3. Understanding what they were shooting from 3 in the first half,
you’ve got to give up something. They’re talented. We gave up the 2s – but contested 2s – and
they made them. They gave us a chance to get back in the game and actually take the lead.”

The quote reads that they were so scarred defensively from the 3-point barrage the Clippers displayed in the first half that Coach Kidd wanted to be more versatile on the perimeter and rolled with Kleber, willing to let Harden shoot 2s. It makes sense, as the Clippers shot 18/29 from 3 for the game, many of those heavily contested. Coach Tyronn Lue and the Clippers made a great adjustment by allowing Harden to create offense for himself in the paint and that changed the game down the stretch and the Mavericks couldn’t respond in time. They’ll have to be better.

So will Coach Kidd change his clutch-time lineups moving forward? The rotation data from the season certainly suggests he will, but this series will come down to more than just changing lineups.

Game 5 will be Wednesday at 9 p.m. CST from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, as the series is tied 2-2.

READ MORE: Kyrie Irving Remains Highly Confident in Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic Against Clippers

Stick with MavericksGameday for more coverage of the Dallas Mavericks throughout the NBA Playoffs 

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A federal judge says she will decide in about a week whether to stop Dallas from requiring sexually oriented businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. daily.

Attorneys for XTC Cabaret, Silver City Cabaret and Tiger Cabaret told U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle the ordinance and measures taken by police and city officials to enforce it are unconstitutional.

Their clients are seeking an injunction that would prevent Dallas from enforcing the curfew. This is the second federal challenge to the ordinance since it first took effect in January 2022.

Sexually oriented businesses are defined in city code as any business that offers services or products “intended to provide sexual stimulation or sexual gratification to the customer.” That includes adult bookstores, video stores, cabarets and other similar businesses.

Some residents told council members when the ordinance was first passed that the curfew would threaten jobs and be a “cultural harm to our city’s LGBT community.”

“There’s hundreds of people, their livelihoods are being affected,” Casey Wallace, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said at the preliminary injunction hearing on Monday. “They’re being put out of work.”

The city officially began enforcing the curfew Nov. 30 after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s temporary restraining order on the law. According to court documents, Dallas police sent out a notice ahead of time letting XTC Cabaret know they were to close during the required hours or face a 30-day suspension of their license, up to $4,000 in fines and potentially criminal charges.

Attorneys told police XTC was willing to comply by not operating as a sexually oriented business after 2 a.m. The club would just serve food and non-alcoholic drinks to those who stayed and only occasionally put on artistic, nonsexual shows in that time.

Police replied that XTC would need a new certificate of occupancy to operate as a restaurant. Even then, the club would be required to close at 2 a.m. because it’s still licensed as a sexually oriented business.

Silver City received a similar notice from police, but attorneys argue the club has a dance hall license and a late-hour permit, therefore it can operate until 4 a.m. daily except Sunday.

Boyle denied the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order in February. She wrote it was a “close call,” but the plaintiffs weren’t likely to succeed on that front based on any of their constitutional claims.

Dallas police presented data to officials in 2022 showing from 2019 to 2021, police received more calls to sexually oriented businesses between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. than between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Police also presented studies concluding sexually oriented businesses have been associated with higher crime rates.

One police officer said Monday he believed enforcement of the ordinance has contributed to a decrease in crimes reported to a federal database that tracks crimes nationwide.

Ben Allen, attorney for the clubs, said that while there are studies that outline the secondary, negative effects of adult entertainment, “that’s not true for the activity we’re trying to engage in.”

Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Fones said monitoring how sexually oriented businesses technically operate from hour to hour is “simply not a workable way to enforce the ordinance.” Officers testified doing so would require more manpower on top of already intensive investigations of crime hotspots.

Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.

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