Unizin Member-Developed Tools Continue to Gain Accolades

Published September 17, 2026

Over the past several months, Unizin members have been recognized by their peers and higher-ed technology groups for the in-house tools and applications developed on and supported by the Unizin Data Platform (UDP) and Unizin data marts.  The latest addition to the list is the University of California, Irvine, which was awarded a $150,000 Growth Prize in the 2026 Tools Competition for its UCI Spark application. 

Tools Competition is a national initiative to fund edtech innovations that leverage digital technology, big data and learning science to meet the urgent needs of learners worldwide. UCI Spark was selected out of a field of more than 1400 submissions, including 350+ submissions for post-secondary student success.  

UCI Spark is a mobile-first, Canvas-embedded guidance platform that combines institutional data and learner insights to generate personalized dashboards for UC Irvine students, connecting their academic progress, extracurricular involvement and career development in one place. 

The Tools Competition Growth Prize is designated to support the expansion of established platforms like Spark. Currently deployed campus-wide, UCI Spark is expanding its integrations to incorporate extracurricular activity data through CampusGroups, further supporting students’ academic, career, and co-curricular development in a single, integrated system.   Additionally, the UCI Spark team is now seeking partner institutions interested in adopting Spark for expansion to other campuses. For more information contact spark@uci.edu 

A stand-out feature of UCI Spark is its streamlined and simple user interface. Delivering these dynamic and personalized dashboards requires massive datasets and complex logic to integrate and assimilate inputs from disparate and distributed administrative systems and academic learning tools across the UC Irvine environment. The UDP and Unizin data marts are central to enabling the Spark experience, providing UCI developers a fast, intuitive way to identify and access LMS and learning tool data to power Spark analytics and deliver personalized recommendations to each Spark user.  

“We are honored to have been recognized with the Tools Competition Growth Prize,” said Jeremy Thacker, Spark Project Lead at UCI. “We're excited to use its support to continue to find innovative ways to apply the Unizin Data Platform to data-driven student success through Spark and to bring Spark's benefits to other institutions!”

For more on how UCI Spark leverages the UDP and Unizin Data Marts, and how it is inspiring other Unizin members, check out our Spark development story and this Spark webinar on the Unizin YouTube channel.   With dozens of new tools in development across the Unizin consortium, watch this space for more news on these soon-to-be award-winning efforts.