Topics for 2025-26 Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl Revealed

SHREVEPORT, La. (Sept. 23, 2025) – The fourth edition of the Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl is underway, as the topic for the 2025-26 competition has been announced and materials have been distributed to universities across the country ahead of Phase One of the Innovation Bowl. 

The Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl is an academic competition between schools and conferences affiliated with the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl and is sponsored by both Radiance Technologies and the Independence Bowl Foundation.

Schools must register by Friday, September 26 to participate in Radiance’s Kick-Off Meeting on Tuesday, September 30. The competition and evaluation of submissions is a two-step process. Teams submit their initial ideas and approaches during Phase One to Radiance Technologies prior to the end of the fall term. From these submissions, scientists and researchers within Radiance Technologies pick three final teams, announced at half-time during the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. These teams then further develop their ideas in the spring semester, Phase Two, through prototypes, models and simulation or experimentation and present their findings in person to a panel of experts. From these live presentations, a winning team is selected and awarded the $25,000 grand prize. Eleven teams from seven universities vied for the grand prize in 2024-25.

2025-2026 Topic: Develop the techniques, procedures, and processes to validate the output of Generative AI models in conducting scientific and technical analysis.

Large Language Models and Generative Artificial Intelligence are significantly altering the workplace and portend a major technological disruption. Their ability to generalize and extract relationships from vast data sets has significant potential with far reaching impact.  While their initial adoption in common tasks, with a knowledgeable human reviewer, have proven effective, their use in conducting more detailed scientific and technical analysis requires further scrutiny.  

LLM and neural networks in general will provide a response whether it is factually correct on not.  There are plenty of anecdotes where they have produced responses, that to a human expert, are obviously incorrect.  Yet, they are being used and applied in ever increasing fields and their ability to find hidden relationships in data can exceed that of the human expert.  Therefore, to fully exploit the technology, innovative verification frameworks driven by large language models that incorporate fact-grounding, source traceability and provenance tracking must be developed to provide a measure of technical assurance that the output is correct. A confidence score is not enough; analysts need traceability of information, source reliability assessment, and transparency of analytic reasoning.

For more information on the Radiance Technologies Innovation Bowl, visit RadianceTech.com/InnovationBowl. 

The finalists will be announced at the 49th Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl on Tuesday, December 30 at 1 p.m. CST between the Big 12 Conference and Conference USA. Tickets start at $20 and are on sale now at RadianceTechnologiesIndependenceBowl.com/Tickets. There is a variety of ticket packages available – including individual tickets, group tickets, Pizza Hut Family 4-Packs, Small Business Fan Packs and more. For ticketing questions, fans can email [email protected] or call the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl office at (318) 221-0712.

For information on Independence Stadium rules and the clear bag policy, please visit RadianceTechnologiesIndependenceBowl.com/stadium-rules. 

ABOUT THE RADIANCE TECHNOLOGIES INDEPENDENCE BOWL™

Established in 1976, the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl™ is college football’s 11th most historic bowl game. The 49th edition will kick off on Tuesday, December 30 at 1 p.m. CST on ESPN. Radiance Technologies is the bowl’s title sponsor through at least the 2027 Bowl Season. The bowl’s conference and television agreements also run through the 2025 bowl game. 

The Independence Bowl Foundation is prevalent in the Shreveport-Bossier City area throughout the year, hosting events to help enhance the economic impact and growth of our community. The Mission of the Independence Bowl is to attract and provide quality, nationally recognized football competition oriented to the Ark-La-Tex region. For more information, visit RadianceTechnologiesIndependenceBowl.com or follow the bowl on Facebook, X and Instagram at @IndyBowl.