Innovator of Year Awarded to STA’s Wood at STN EXPO West
RENO, Nev. — Cameron Wood, the lead electric vehicle performance analyst for school bus contractor Student Transportation of America, accepted the sixth annual Innovator of the Year award July 12 during the opening session of STN EXPO West.
Wood is highlighted on the cover and a feature article in the July issue of School Transportation News. He joined STA in 2024 after working as a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin. His background in engineering, algorithms and data analysis helped him bring a new perspective to student transportation.

He is recognized as Innovator of the Year for creating a machine-learning system that determines the appropriate state of charge for individual buses. The program combines real-time information from electric school buses, chargers and local weather with historical performance data. It then automatically recommends charging levels and adjusts charging times based on operating conditions, route needs and expected energy use.
The technology addresses challenges that can make electric school bus charging more complex than conventional fueling. Charging sessions can fail because of dirty connectors, improperly inserted plugs or communication problems between the vehicle and charger. Cold weather also increases energy consumption because heating systems draw power from the battery. These factors are especially important when buses must recharge between morning and afternoon routes or share sequential chargers.
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Before launching the automated program, Wood developed a calculator that required employees to enter charging and scheduling information manually. While useful, that approach could not easily scale as STA added more electric buses and chargers. Wood’s updated system, which is patent pending, now manages charging sessions throughout the day with minimal intervention, reducing work that could take employees several hours to a process completed in seconds. The automation also minimizes human error and gives drivers greater confidence that buses will be ready for their routes
During STN EXPO West conference, Wood was joined by his mother and her partner, as well as Rachel Lane, the company’s vice president of electrification and sustainability, and Thomas Yessman, the executive vice president of shared services at STA.

Tony Corpin, the president of STN Media Group and publisher of School Transportation News, introduced Wood as a passionate, intelligent and articulate individual.
“To say that I’m honored is an understatement,” Wood said on stage Sunday morning. “I want to thank Tony and the team at STN and along with NSTA for giving out this award every year. I want to thank Rachel Lane and Thomas Yesman for coming out from STA to support me. Especially Rachel, she’s a great boss. And thank you to my family, my mom and her partner came out all the way from Pennsylvania to support me and it means a lot. Thank you everyone.”
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