University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Honored with NACCU 2024 Innovative Technology Award

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Rokwire App Recognized with the NACCU 2025 Innovative Technology Award

Phoenix, AZ – April 25, 2024– NACCU is proud to announce that the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Rokwire App has received the NACCU 2024 Innovative Technology Award. The award was presented to Kathryn Courtney, Associate Director of System Development and Support, during the Awards Luncheon at the NACCU 2024 Annual Conference in Covington, Kentucky on April 17, 2024.

The NACCU Innovative Technology Award recognizes and celebrates the success of a NACCU institutional member that has implemented innovative uses of technology in support of services used by campus identification programs.

The development of the app began with a desire to meet students where they are—on their phones. With the
smartphone being the native habitat for students, the university needed a comprehensive university app, rather than a collection of vendor apps.

To accomplish this, the multitude of siloed vendor and administrative systems involved in delivering information to students needed addressing. In 2018, the Smart, Healthy Communities Initiative (SHCI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign formed and created a free, open-source mobile app platform called Rokwire that consolidates multiple data streams and systems into one mobile app for students, staff, and others. The Illinois app that runs on the Rokwire platform has garnered over 100,000 first-time downloads across both Apple and Google app stores since its launch in October 2019.

Rokwire is available for free to universities, non-profits, governmental agencies, businesses, and individuals. It is the first of its kind, allowing institutions to collaborate in a way more concrete than ever before. Using Rokwire, any institution can create a comprehensive campus app that includes services such as virtual ID cards, mobile credentials, dining locations and menus, campus events, bus schedules, class schedules, campus wayfinding, and access to wellness resources. Because this is an open-source platform, the Rokwire ecosystem will grow based on contributions from various entities. Each adopter can choose to implement only the features they want and make contributions to the platform as appropriate. University of Illinois continues to look for opportunities to collaborate with vendors and other institutions.

Learn more about the Rokwire app by reading the award nomination here.

NACCU is excited to congratulate the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the recipient of the NACCU 2024 Innovative Technology Award.

About NACCU
NACCU connects campus identification and transaction system professionals with resources to streamline campus operations and enhance the student experience. NACCU’s mission is to advance the position of higher education transaction and identity systems through professional development and leadership opportunities for its members to stay current in an ever-changing environment. NACCU is excited to offer a variety of events targeting the needs of those working in higher education identification credentials, access control, and related technologies and services. Join us at the next NACCU Data Summit, to be held on June 4-5 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, or at NACCU Near You - Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada on June 11. Explore the full calendar of upcoming events here.