Ellington Innovation Award

The Ellington Innovation Award, formerly known as the Project Showcase Award, is an exciting award provided by CFTA annually. This award is given to illustrate incredible work and showcase expertise within the CFTA community through innovation. The Ellington Innovation Award honors CFTA's exceptional visionary and CFTA Past President (2015 - 2019), Michelle Ellington.

The Ellington Innovation Award is awarded at the CFTA Annual Conference through a peer vote on conference sessions. Innovative solutions and sharing of ideas are at the core of what defines the CFTA Mission and community. All conference attendees are eligible to vote via a survey following each eligible breakout session they attend. A link to the survey for each eligible session will be available through the conference app. When voting members consider the sessions over all quality and level of innovation compared to their peers and the industry.

Conference presentations involving CFTA Campus Members are eligible to win the award and are scored by showcasing their innovative solution, project, and expertise. Full eligibility and award details are provided at the end of this page.

CFTA's 2026 Ellington Innovation Award Winner

Building a Campus UAS & Reality Capture Program from the Ground Up

 - Presented by Nate Exley of Baylor University

Past Award Winners

• Presented by Rachel VanKeuren and Treavon Clark of The Ohio State University

• Presented by Peggy M. Quijada de Franke & James Conway of the Los Angeles Community College District, Sunil Shah of Ambient Program Management, and Kimon Onuma of ONUMA, Inc.

• Presented by Maree Archuleta, Jessica Goff, and Grant McCormick of the University of Arizona

• Presented by Deborah Massaro of Austin Community College

Award Details

Award Eligibility

• Any active Campus Member can win the award.
• Any presentation with a campus member will be eligible (primary speaker, secondary speaker, etc.)
• This includes active directors and officers
• Winning a different award from the conference, does not exclude you from eligibility for this award.
• There are a number of session types that are eligible; the most traditional is a breakout session.
• The keynote is not eligible.
• There is not a keynote every year and there is a difference between a keynote and a main stage presentation.
• Due to the number of potential session formats, eligibility of a session is checked by the conference planning committee and determined prior to the conference.
• Business partners are not eligible on their own and cannot receive some of the awards benefits.
• This means a session with a business partner is only eligible if there is an eligible campus member listed as a speaker.
• The eligible presenter will receive the applicable awards, see award section or more details.

Scoring Criteria

• The conference planning committee designates two talliers to review the scores for sessions. 
• The industry standard "Bayesian Average" scoring method is used.
• This helps account for high/low survey responses per session
• Tie breakers
• Tie breaker 1: Awarded to the presentation with no previous Ellington award winners
• Tie breaker 2: Voted on by the conference planning task force 
• Tie breaker 3: President breaks tie

Awards

• One physical trophy
• This goes to members of the presentation that are eligible at the time of winning the award.
• One watercooler presentation follow up, open to the public and prior to the next conference
• This is a group award to all presenters to do collaboratively, including any non-eligible members who helped present.
• CFTA website, LinkedIn, and YouTube recognition
• This is a group award to all presenters to do collaboratively, including any non-eligible members who helped present.
• One free conference registration for the next conference.
• The free conference registration goes to a campus member of the presentation that is eligible at the time of winning the award.
• The conference registration is sometimes transferable in specific situations:
• It is transferable to other campus members of the winning presentation
• It is transferable to another campus member who did not present if any of the following are true:
• The winner is a part of the same institution
• The winner choses to donate it to another institution:
• A new member institution that has never attended CFTA
• An early career campus member (less than 3 years of service)
• If a winner loses eligibility for the following year's Ellington award, they can still utilize their free conference registration or have it transferred through the above transfer rules.
• Examples of this could be:
• An award winner changes from campus member to business member
• An award winner has a lapse in campus membership