The Academic Challenge event is a high school competition that was created and conducted annually by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Engineering WYSE Outreach Program for about 40 years. Although the operation of the competition has been discontinued by UIUC, Eastern Illinois University will be continuing to run the competition with the assistance of many other institutions throughout Illinois and Missouri. Students choose to compete in two academic subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, english, and engineering graphics.

Moderators:
Co-Head Moderator & Chemistry Coach: Mr. Michael Trankina
Co-Head Moderator & Biology Coach: Mr. Timothy Menich
Physics Coach: Mr. Peter Lamkin
English Coach: Mr. John Schoeph