C
ameron Wood sees an electric school bus as a moving math problem. Every day, school bus contractor Student Transportation of Ameri- ca’s electric fleet must be charged with enough
precision to complete morning and afternoon routes, account for weather-related battery demands and avoid unnecessary strain on operations. At a mere 26 years old, Wood has helped solve that challenge by developing a machine-learning program that recommends charging levels for each bus. Work that has not only led to a pend- ing patent but also earned the wunderkind recognition as School Transportation News Innovator of the Year. “Having started here in October 2024, I would nev-
er have imagined that in just over a year and a half I’d have this opportunity,” he said. “It validates the work that we’ve been doing on the electrification front and motivates me to continue pushing the envelope to show what’s possible in this space. I’m grateful to the team at STN for taking the time to learn more about this project and for naming me Innovator of the Year.” Rachel Lane, vice president of electrification and sus-
tainability for STA, described Wood in her nomination as someone whose innovative spirit has helped support the company’s efforts to scale EV fleet deployments for customers while ensuring buses consistently hold the appropriate amount of charge to support operations throughout the day. She added that when she was look- ing to hire the position that Wood eventually filled, she had to craft a job description for a role that didn’t exist in the industry. “I didn’t need someone with a transportation back-
ground per se,” she said, adding Wood has degrees in chemical engineering and electrical engineering. “They needed to have some foundational knowledge on EV technology but didn’t need to be an expert. They needed to be good at data analysis, figuring out how to deter- mine and measure key data points and understanding what data could be used to improve performance. The role, like our EV department, has evolved over time and continues to do so. Cameron has a lot of latitude to develop the means and methods for tracking and improving performance, which showcases his technical skills and his ability to think and operate independently and creatively.” As the lead electric vehicle analyst for STA, Wood
wrote a program that supports maintaining the required state of charge, or SOC, for STA’s electric fleet of school buses. The program consolidates multiple data sources that provide information on current conditions and bus performance, then uses machine learning to calculate the required SOC for those conditions. It also automat- ically sets the recommended charge time for each bus,
62 School Transportation News • JULY 2026
eliminating the need for manual intervention. Lane noted that because bus efficiency can change
with the temperature throughout the school year, it becomes cumbersome to adjust the required charge on a manual basis, especially as STA continues to grow its fleet. “Cameron’s method of programming the chargers is
a proactive improvement that was not found native in any of the individual systems that we use,” she said. “He developed this with his own initiative and skill set.” Wood said winning the award is humbling, especially this early in his career and after a short tenure in school transportation. He added that Lane has been a support- ive mentor and provided him opportunities to grow. “Cameron’s innovative charger programming is transparent to our drivers but furthers our efforts in getting children to school safely, on time, and, now with electric buses, in a cleaner way,” a company spokesper- son added. “Drivers can focus on executing their routes while feeling confident that their buses are charged and ready to perform as required. STA empowers its people to make meaningful improvements and is proud to have Cameron receive this well-deserved award.” Lane noted that Wood is focused on improving the
efficiency and reliability of the company’s EV operations. “He’s been doing great work at keeping our terminals up to date with showing how they are performing from an efficiency and operational usage standpoint and trou- bleshooting any issues,” she said. “In the short term, this [program] will help our terminals get more out of their EV investments, improving both the value proposition and our terminal satisfaction with the new technology. As we can run more buses, for longer distance, and fine tune our operations, this will help us to deliver more of these buses to our customers.” Dan Higbie, a general manager of one of STA’s New
York locations, agreed. “Because of Cameron Wood’s in- novative system and nonstop oversight, our drivers have complete confidence that their buses will be charged and ready every time,” he said. "His commitment to our needs have been essential to our electric bus success in New York.”
A Patent-Pending Program STA currently operates 120 electric school buses across
11 states and Ontario, Canada. The company has another 108 EVs on order with expected deliveries by the end of the summer and next year. Wood explained that charging an electric school bus is much more complex than filling a vehicle with gasoline. Because the system is high voltage, a series of digital “handshakes” must occur between the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) and the vehicle before
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