University of Advancing Technology's Official Technology Blog

At University of Advancing Technology (UAT), the college experience doesn't start with syllabi and seat assignments — it starts with a challenge. Before new students have even settled into their dorms, they're thrown into CONNECT, UAT's signature new-student orientation, and handed a theme, a team, and a deadline. This is the Innovator's Challenge, one of the first tastes of what makes this campus different.

From the Provost Challenge to the Innovator's Challenge

For years, this tradition was known as the Provost Challenge, named for the university's own Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Dave Bolman, who hosted the event and kicked off the competition for incoming classes. Starting with the Class of 2029's Fall 2026 CONNECT, the tradition has been renamed the Innovator's Challenge — a new name for a challenge that's been shaping UAT students for at least a decade . Alongside the new name comes a new face at the podium: UAT's Vice President of Student Affairs, Brandi Beals, now hosts the challenge and welcomes each new class to campus.

How It Works

The format has stayed true to its roots even as the name has changed. During CONNECT, incoming students are split into cross-disciplinary teams — often meeting their teammates for the very first time. Teams are deliberately built to mix majors, so no single group is stacked with all Game Artists or Cyber Ninjas. The goal is a true cross-section of UAT's degrees on every team, forcing students to lean on each other's different skill sets from day one. From there:

• A theme (or a handful of quirky elements) is announced during the opening ceremony in the Community Theater on the first day of CONNECT.
• Teams have approximately 7 Days until the following Wednesday afternoon to brainstorm, design, and build a working prototype around that theme.
• The result can be anything: a game, a product, a film, or something no one saw coming.
• At the end of the challenge, every team takes the stage for a few fast-paced minutes to pitch, demo, and defend their creation in front of a panel of faculty judges.
• After deliberation, one team is named the winner.

It's a crash course in teamwork, creativity, and building under pressure — all before most students have attended a single official class.

Why It Matters

The Innovator's Challenge (and the Provost Challenge before it) has become a rite of passage at UAT, setting the tone for a university built around project-based, hands-on learning. It's often the first sign for new students that their ideas are taken seriously here, and that UAT really is for building whatever they've always wanted to create.

At UAT, students are required to innovate to graduate — and that expectation doesn't wait for junior year or a capstone class. It starts on day one, with the Innovator's Challenge as the very first proof that every student here is expected to build, not just study.

The Innovator's Challenge is just the beginning of that innovate-to-graduate mindset. Students carry that same energy forward throughout their time at UAT, eventually channeling it into their own Student Innovation Project (SIP) before they walk the stage at graduation.

This Year's Challenge

Every year the students are given a new set of rules and required elements they need to use in their innovation, this years elements were:

• It has to be a new innovation, nothing they may have worked on in the past
• Wrath - UAT's Mascot born just this year on February 14th, 2026 - but they could not alter or make changes to Wrath, (they were allowed to use him as inspiration, i.e. fan art)
• A piece of technology that came out before they were born
• A piece of UAT lore - the pool on the 4th floor of the dorm, or Max the Catscot to name a couple.

The Teams and Their Projects

Team 1 - Cat Pult 

Team 1 took inspiration from UAT's Wrath, and Catscot Max as well as Gordon Ramsay and Angry Birds, to make a video game. They used Unity to build a Retro, Low Fidelity style game. To incorporate a piece of older technology they used a Fuji Film Digital Camera, using the microphone to record their "meow" sound effect, then choosing to use a traditional microphone to record Max's voice and Wraths' roar. 

Team 2 - Static Relay

This team chose to create a Competitive Survival Board game that is a rag table top card game using a D20, D10 and D6 for rolling and moving around the map. The cards are used to interact with the map, players and events. The cards are modifiers that directly affect the players. To incorporate old tech, they took its inspiration and created a "Tech Card" that can directly affect a players win conditions. Wrath's eye is shown on their cards. 

Team 3 - Yellow Loong

This group took inspiration from the UAT lore of javelinas and combined it with the Angry Birds Game deciding that if the birds go after pigs, why not have a Dragon (Wraths a Wyvern but we'll let that slide) go after some javelinas. To add in old technology this team chose to combine really bad 90's commercials with a slingshot. 

Team 4 - Vintage Vice

Team 4 also built a card game, taking on the challenge of combining inspiration from "You-Gi-Oh" and "Go Fish." Creating and designing multiple card decks including a "Main Deck" that used old technology as a theme and a "Sin Deck" that incorporates the7 deadly sins. To hit the challenge of incorporating Wrath, the team was able to use his eye, name and likeness on the cards.

Team 5 - Steel Sluggers

This team chose to try and revamp and old Rock Em Sock Em game. While the couldn't quite finish the 3D build, they did make a video game demo of it. 

Team 6 - NeuroTouch

The NeuroTouch team created a 3D experience where players scan the brain of Wrath, UAT’s mascot dragon, to study their brain activity. The game takes place on the fourth floor of the dorms in the pool room, where Wrath resides. Players use different tools and resources, including an MRI machine, an EEG machine, and a tablet, to examine the patient’s mind. The main objective is to correctly diagnose the patient by analyzing their brain scan.​

And the Winner Is...

Vintage Vice! This teams ability to come together, hit every required element and create a complex and successful  game really showed their ability to Innovate! Great job Team!

Ready to bring your ideas to life from day one? Discover UAT's degree programs and see how the Innovator's Challenge kicks off every student's journey.