WENATCHEE — A Quincy High School student is one of 15 finalists for the NCW Tech Alliance Innovator Awards, according to an announcement from NCW Tech Alliance.

QHS junior Brooklyn Averill is one of three competitors in the K-12 Future Technology Leader of the Year finals, according to the announcement. Averill’s entry in the competition was an AI agent that books appointments for the Wenatchee cleaning service iClean.

“(The owner) was having trouble making appointments for her cleaners and getting invoices done correctly, and other things as well,” Averill said. “So we decided to focus on that and make a booking agent that took the orders for her.”

The AI agent takes down the client’s name and address, the square footage of the home and other pertinent information like how often services will be needed and whether there are pets, and coordinates with the company to get a cleaner assigned and the client billed. It also generates a map for the cleaner, Averill said, so they can find the location easily, something that has been an issue in the past.

The AI agent is fully bilingual, Averill said, so it can communicate with both the client and the cleaner in either English of Spanish. The agent starts the conversation by asking what language the user prefers, but can switch languages if the user does during the conversation. Averill doesn’t speak Spanish herself, she said, but the owner of iClean does. Some employees of NCW Tech Alliance are also bilingual, which enabled the creators to check the phrasing in both languages, she said.

To program the agent, Averill used an online program called Claude, which is itself AI. 

“It uses a flowchart with decision-making skills based on (user) responses,” Averill said. “It took feedback super well. We would prompt it and tell it what we wanted it to do, and then it would create the different versions. We could rework it if we needed adaptations, or if we wanted things removed or added, and it would create new versions, and then we exported it as a website.”

The other two competitors in the K-12 category are Eastmont High School senior Torrin Stone, who developed an interactive agent that answers customer questions for a bowling alley, and Cascade High School senior Elliot Tiegel, who invented a shoe insole that uses the motion of the user’s feet to generate electricity to power electronic devices, according to NCW Tech Alliance’s website. Averill was entered for the award after completing study in NCW Tech Alliance’s AI Youth Corps, a six-day training program that builds AI literacy and problem-solving skills, according to the website.

This is the 25th year for the NCW Tech Alliance Innovator Awards, according to the announcement. Besides K-12, there are categories for college student inventors and STEM educators.

Not all the Innovators work in AI, but as an emerging technology, AI does lend itself to innovation, said NCW Tech Alliance CEO Sue Kane, provided it’s used to its full potential.

“AI tools are really good at a handful of things,” Kane said. “They sort information, they classify information, they organize information … If you just treat it like a glorified search engine, you're not giving it any kind of data or resources. But if you learn how to use that tool in a way that you ground it in actual information and data, what you've been given with AI is the ability to sort and organize and evaluate that information in ways that are unimaginable.”

Averill has been taking computer classes since eighth grade, she said, and also exploring programming in her free time. She’s had to put the computer classes on hold for the time being, she said, while she participates in Running Start.

The Innovator Award winners will be announced at a luncheon in Wenatchee Nov. 3, according to the announcement. 

“Innovation doesn't have one definition, and this year's finalists prove it,” NCW Tech Alliance Marketing Director David Mabee wrote in the announcement. “From students turning big ideas into real-world solutions to organizations rethinking what's possible, these finalists represent the creativity, determination, and community spirit we've celebrated for 25 years.”

More information can be found at www.ncwtech.org.

2026 Innovator Awards finalists:

K-12 Future Technology Leader of the Year

Presented by Seattle Children's

• Brooklyn Averill, Quincy High School

• Torrin Stone, Eastmont High School

• Elliot Tiegel, Cascade High School

STEM College Innovator of the Year

Presented by Student Energy Managers

• Emily Murphy, Western Washington University

• Sachiko Newell, Central Washington University

• Monica Oropeza Rojas, Wenatchee Valley College

STEM Champion of the Year

Presented by Port of Moses Lake

• Dr. Ryan Christoph, Omak School District

• Cari Horning, Apple STEM Network

• Dr. James Webber, Chelan County PUD

Newcomer in Technology / Innovative Use of Technology

Presented by Central Washington University

• Douglas County PUD

• RiverCom 911

• Twelve

Entrepreneur of the Year

Presented by Key Methods

• Kelli and Adam Rynd, Woodin Enterprises

• Jess and Dan Pappas, P2X Studio

• Laura and Bill Bruders, Neu Flessenow Cellars

    Quincy High School students Brooklyn Averill, left, and Alessandra Gudiño show their certificates of completion from NCW Tech Alliance’s AI Youth Corps.