University Innovation Fellows - User contributions [en]

Fellow:James Ryan

2018-02-16T00:18:36Z

JamesRyan:

I am a new University Innovation Fellow who attends the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in Australia. I am currently commencing my third [[File:JamesRyan.jpg|thumb|JamesRyan.jpg]]year studying Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. I decided to study mechatronics because it seemed to be an excellent opportunity to apply my passion and skill for programming into the physical world.

As an active member in my university environment, I decided to join the University Fellows because it is an excellent opportunity to improve upon how i lead my peers and teach my fellow students. I look up to the previous fellows from my university as leaders and ambassadors, and i aspire to have impact as positive as theirs.

One of my involvements is an executive role in the robotics society, where i organize, and teach introduction to robotics workshops and organize events. Through the society i also get to work on larger scale projects, such as my favorite project: Robot Wars! (which is the Battle Bots in America). I also collaborated with all current and previous UIF's to facilitate the design and creation of a maker space in our university's Engineering Building.

If you couldn't tell, my greatest passion is programming and robotics. I am currently a researcher for GBDTC (at UTS), where i am researching new methods to perform group counting using neural networks. I love playing music, especially piano, but i also play guitar, bass and i am learning violin. I play cricket, soccer and am giving archery a solid attempt. I'm always on the lookout for new experiences and things to learn.

Student Contributors

School:University of Technology Sydney

2018-02-15T21:54:32Z

JamesRyan:

[[File:UTS Cover.jpg|center|University of Technology Sydney - Faculty of Engineering and IT]]

== Overview ==

The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) was founded in 1988 and is located in NSW, Australia.  A modern focus and a drive for innovation has enabled UTS to quickly climb global rankings, currently ranked number one in ''Times Higher Education'' top 100 universities under 50. With an overall ranking of 21 worldwide for all universities founded in the last 50 years.

An industry focus with modern courses and state-of-the-art equipment has enabled its degrees and students continue to become more renounced and respected worldwide. UTS has shown a passion to continue this movement through it's 1 Billion dollar investment to fundamentally change the way that teaching, learning and research is delivered.

== Student Entrepreneurship ==

UTS is located in Ultimo which is the most heavily populated Start-Up area in Australia, similar to Silion Valley in the United States. Leveraging this, UTS has become one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial campuses in Australia. There are various programs implemented by UTS to encourage student entrepreneurship including,

- The Hatchery Ideate program: a 6 month extra curricular program, designed to give students the upper-hand in launching start-ups

- The Hatchery Accelerate program: a 10 week start up accelerator which gives student startups the tools and connections to grow their business at a rapid pace. The Accelerate program also includes $2000 of unconditional seed funding to startups which have been accepted into the program.

- Student Run Innovation and Entrepreneurial Societies on Campus

- Hackathons & Competitions including Project Pitch and 3P Competition, designed to launch competitive businesses

Each of these programs are trans-disciplinary, with no limitations or restrictions to certain faculties, degree types or year levels. The culmination of each of these has enabled UTS to become an active player in the Australian Start-Up Community. Helping to grow and support the culture, values and organisations within the Australian start-up ecosystem.

== Faculty of Trans-Disciplinary Innovation (FTDI) ==

Over the years, UTS has gradually implemented a range of course work within subjects focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship to help students gain an in-depth understanding of these concepts. UTS has also implemented faculty targets to ensure that this momentum continues across all levels of the internal organisation.

UTS, has however, also taken this a step further, through the creation of courses such as,

- Bachelor of Creative Intellegence & Innovation,

- Bachelor of Technology & Innovation

- Masters of Data Science & Innovation

- Masters of Business Adminstration in Entrepreneurship, and many others.

These courses are designed to equip students with the diverse skills necessary to thrive in a future full of unknowns. In these courses, students are placed into high pressure situations with limited time frames and diverse teams where they are forced to experiment and learn from their mistakes. This leaves academics to take on the role of mentor as students are encouraged to not only develop creative solutions, but also to interpret the brief itself in interesting and differnet ways.

== University Opportunities ==

UTS has provided a huge range of different opportunities to help students grow and develop their passion for both Innovation and Entrepreneurship. These include,

Hackathon Weekends such as:

- Project Pitch (Weekend Long Competition to create, test and launch Start-Ups, with over $10,000 in prize money)

- 3P Competition (Competition run by the Business Faculty focusing on People, Planet & Profit with over $20,000 in prize money)

Entrepreneurial Based Student Societies Including,

- Australian Collaborative Entrepreneurial Society (ACES) Focused on creating Entrepreneurship activities for students.

- BCII Connect, a student society dedicated to creating a community for and around students of the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation.

== University - Industry Collaboration ==

The university of technology has a reputation for being an extremely practical university. Focusing on and encouraging industry placements, internships and practical experience throughout courses. In some instances, this real-world experience is compulsory for students to complete.

This focus has enabled university students to better understand the job market and get real life experience. Placing them in a much better position to obtain a job upon graduation. Industry professionals also regularly mentor students during their semester at the hatchery and help design business models for potential student run start-up companies.

== Start-Up Companies ==

UTS’s constant support and entrepreneurial education has assisted may students develop million-dollar start-up companies straight out of university. Some of the companies developed and formed in the UTS environment include Cube rider, which is the first private Australian company to put satellites in space and Wine stash, which is predicted to make 3 million dollars during its third year.

[http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/business/business-support/business-in-your-sector/key-industries/tech-startups http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/business/business-support/business-in-your-sector/key-industries/tech-startups]

== Landscape Canvas ==

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x_Qbm82llQjJffIheY0fgKWbJm-DvfAz1tkYfs1Q1Nw/edit#gid=0 2018 Landscape Canvas]

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R2VFCUqoX-CR5sDqWEpmYpjifsJs8IwsRBcf_jDb3XE/edit#gid=1930134819 2017 Landscape Canvas]

= Related Links =

UTS Home Page:

[https://www.uts.edu.au https://www.uts.edu.au]

UTS Hatchery Home Page:

[https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/opportunities/hatchery/overview https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/opportunities/hatchery/overview]

UTS FaceBook Page:

[https://www.facebook.com/UTSEngage/ https://www.facebook.com/UTSFEIT/]

UTS UIF Facebook Page:

[https://www.facebook.com/UIFUTS/ https://www.facebook.com/UIFUTS/]

Spring 2018 UIF:

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/User:PreslandBoy Laurence Presland]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Alastair_Bate Alastair Bate]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/James_Ryan James Ryan]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/User:Gavan_Huang Gavan Huang]

Spring 2017 UIF:

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Matthew_Childs Matthew Childs]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Peter_Cole Peter Cole]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Irene_Hsieh Irene Hsieh]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Corey_Stewart Corey Stewart]

[[Category:Universities]]

Fellow:James Ryan

2018-02-15T13:17:53Z

JamesRyan:

I am a new University Innovation Fellow who attends the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in Australia. I am currently commencing my third [[File:JamesRyan.jpg|thumb]]yearJamesRyan.jpg studying Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. I decided to study mechatronics because it seemed to be an excellent opportunity to apply my passion and skill for programming into the physical world.

As an active member in my university environment, I decided to join the University Fellows because it is an excellent opportunity to improve upon how i lead my peers and teach my fellow students. I look up to the previous fellows from my university as leaders and ambassadors, and i aspire to have impact as positive as theirs.

One of my involvements is an executive role in the robotics society, where i organize, and teach introduction to robotics workshops and organize events. Through the society i also get to work on larger scale projects, such as my favorite project: Robot Wars! (which is the Battle Bots in America). I also collaborated with all current and previous UIF's to facilitate the design and creation of a maker space in our university's Engineering Building.

If you couldn't tell, my greatest passion is programming and robotics. I am currently a researcher for GBDTC (at UTS), where i am researching new methods to perform group counting using neural networks. I love playing music, especially piano, but i also play guitar, bass and i am learning violin. I play cricket, soccer and am giving archery a solid attempt. I'm always on the lookout for new experiences and things to learn.

Student Contributors

Fellow:James Ryan

2018-02-15T13:17:19Z

JamesRyan:

I am a new University Innovation Fellow who attends the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in Australia. I am currently commencing my third yearJamesRyan.jpg studying Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. I decided to study mechatronics because it seemed to be an excellent opportunity to apply my passion and skill for programming into the physical world.

As an active member in my university environment, I decided to join the University Fellows because it is an excellent opportunity to improve upon how i lead my peers and teach my fellow students. I look up to the previous fellows from my university as leaders and ambassadors, and i aspire to have impact as positive as theirs.

One of my involvements is an executive role in the robotics society, where i organize, and teach introduction to robotics workshops and organize events. Through the society i also get to work on larger scale projects, such as my favorite project: Robot Wars! (which is the Battle Bots in America). I also collaborated with all current and previous UIF's to facilitate the design and creation of a maker space in our university's Engineering Building.

If you couldn't tell, my greatest passion is programming and robotics. I am currently a researcher for GBDTC (at UTS), where i am researching new methods to perform group counting using neural networks. I love playing music, especially piano, but i also play guitar, bass and i am learning violin. I play cricket, soccer and am giving archery a solid attempt. I'm always on the lookout for new experiences and things to learn.

Student Contributors[[File:JamesRyan.jpg]]

2018-02-02T03:22:39Z

JamesRyan:

== Overview ==

{{#widget:YouTube|id=PKCKcI0qSYk}}

== Strategy #1 Creation of an innovation space ==

Recently, UTS has begun encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship around campus, made evident by starting two team in the University Innovation Fellows program. Created by the previous and new candidate UIF’s at UTS, this strategy aims to provide a place to facilitate innovation collaboration and teamwork for students. Currently this strategy is already off the ground and we have already pitched our ideas to the heads of the Engineering and IT faculty and they are more than enthusiastic with our idea.

== Milestone 1: Initial Stakeholder meeting - Completed ==

What got our project started was when the heads of the Engineering and IT Faculty emailed us expressing interest in re-purposing a previously unused space in the Engineering and IT building.

== Milestone 2: Idea Pitch - Completed ==

Two weeks from our initial stakeholder meeting, we re-scheduled a meeting with the faculty leaders to pitch our ideas. We generated three ideas for our innovation space which had varying levels of creativity and many different features. We gained valuable insigth from the faculty leaders, as they provided many thoughts and opinions on what they thought would work and what was too far out there to be practicle.

== Milestone 3: Investor Pitch - Completed ==

To provide funding for the room, the faculty leaders had a potential investor lined up who was interested to know what kind of opportunities this space could provide for students. We had a short meeting with the investor where we gave him a summarised version of our three pitches and explained why this un used space should be re purposed. Over all the investor had a positive opinion of our ideas and even had his ideas and suggestions to improve our ideas.

== Milestone 4:  Project Follow Up – Planned Feb 2018 ==

In this milestone we aim to discuss potential strategies to take our ideas to the final stages and eventually turn the innovation space from an idea into a reality.

== Milestone 5: Working with architects or designers – Planned March 2018 ==

In this milestone we aim to create a design for the final product by working architects and designers. We aim to have a professional looking design that will be enticing to students as well as serve their practical needs for innovation and collaboration.

== Milestone 6: Construction - Planned April 2018 ==

For the construction of our space we aim for it to take as little time as possible, to minimise disturbance for the students, with the construction taking place outside of peak university times.

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'''Strategy #2: Formal Recognition of student involvement in extra-curricular acitivites'''

During interviews with first year students at UTS we discovered that a lot of students were extremely unengaged with extra-curricular acitivites, were intidimated to be involved, were not aware of opportunities or were wanting to be involved but didn't have the belief they were capable enough. Many students would go to class and go back home or to work. As well as this, a lot of students also felt that they were unable to differentiate themselves when applyng for a job and felt that the only way to do so was through extra-currcular activiites, however, communicating their involvements was extremely difficult when integrating it in their CV. 

By combining these 2 issues, we were able to ideate a solution to incentivise students to become even more engaged with university life outside of classes. This resulted in the idea to implement and recognise students’ involvement formally in their academic transcript to show employer's a student's involvement during their course of their degree.

As a result of this, students would feel the need to beomce involved in university to help distinguish themselves from others when seeking a job and feel rewarded for doing so.

 

'''The Plan:'''

'''Milstone 1:'''

We would begin speaking to employer's about what they seek when hiring people. We would conduct an empathy interview about students and the hiring process, and how extra-currcular activities could be implement when going through the job application process.

'''Milestone 2:'''

We would speak to the Faculty of Engineering and IT about the demands of industry when it comes to job application, and provide them a list of reccomendations that industry expect from universities in regards to student exmployment. 

'''Milestone 3:'''

We would then get students to voice their concerns to Faculty about the needs of formal recognition in the Academic Transcript and then being to work closely with Faculty to being integrating this system.  '''Milestone 4''':

After this, a checklist would be created to ensure that extra-curricular activities are monitored and thoroughly examined to give students opportunities to have these involvements formalised in their transcript. 

'''Milestone 5:'''

Implement a IT system to ensure the smooth running of the documentation and recording of student involvement at UTS.

'''Milestone 6:'''

Announce the creation of the new section of the Academic Transcript.
==

== Milestone 7: Grand opening - Planned July 2018 ==

In this milestone we intend to open our innovation space to the students. It is very rare to see new and interesting spaces open from existing spaces inside UTS, so we aim to have an awesome opening ceremony.

 

== Strategy #3 - Social Events to Break Down Faculty Separations ==

When interviewing students from various degree backgrounds, it was often evident that rarely interacted with students who were apart of a different faculty to themselves. In many occasions, they barely interacted with people outside of their own course. We have often seen that students who know more people in a cross disciplined environment often get involved with a much grander range of activities and therefore enjoy their university experience more.

=== Tactic #1 - Run innovation workshops for cross faculty students to encourage innovation and meeting of friends ===

A continual aim of the UIFs at UTS has been to foster innovation and promote student engagement at our uni. We are modifying it slightly so that it is no so much as a strategy and instead making it more of a goal we will achieve by doing other activities. In this case we are getting there by bringing together students from a range of backgrounds and using their different skills so that they work on the theme that we have for that particular workshop.

=== Tactic #2 - Run social events that are not discipline specific ===

We have found during our empathy work that students are most likely not to go to an event because they do not know any other people who will be going. A good way to overcome this first hurdle is with social activites as these are often vary popular and can be used to familiarise people with the cohort they could be working with for a rnage of other events.

This then means that we will be able to have a much larger audience to promote our events to, along with the change that people will be interacting with students not apart of their usual friend group.

=== Tactic #3 - Host uni wide hackathons to get people involved ===

This tactic follows on from tactic #2 as students who have become familar with us as a staple of uni life. This tactic will begin to integrate the uni courses with the social side of the university. The innovation methods that we have discussed with the group can be integrated with real life problems cementing the knowledge they learn at uni as an actual useful thing to have. It will also expose students to the grander scheme of what their knowledge can be used for.

=== Milestone #1 - Host a networking event at which there is no more than 35% of students from a particular faculty ===

Due to the make up of the university a reasonable goal of faculty mix would be around 35%, this would allow for the slightly larger faculties in the universities, while still making sure that we have an almost equal mix of backgrounds across the university.

=== Milsestone #2 - Expland the UIF program at UTS outside of the Engineering Faculty ===

Currently all UIF program at UTS is hosted from the engineering faculty. This has been fantastic at the start, but it would be a true step forward to expand this to other faculties around the university as to gain different perspectivies and new ideas.

=== Milestone #3 - Make orientation a uni wide event with activites for all students. ===

One of the most influential times at university is in the first week of the first year of a student's university life. Here many friends are made and perspectives are grown. At the moment most, if not all introduction sessions are run on a faculty level with many being dealt with in cohort and major groups. By growing this so that the activities include a range of different backgrouds the university would be in a much better position to host cross disciplines events and grow strengths as the encouragement to take classes out of a specific faculty would come from the students.

=== Milestone #4 - commence uni subjects that are not tied to one particular faculty ===

The final milestone after the range of improvements would be for the uni to introduce subjects that were not directly related to any specific faculty and instead were based around the aim of solving real life problems. Here students would come from a range of backgrounds and would be able solve issues in a challenge based learning environment. This would fit in well with the graduate attributes that UTS promotes and also would prepare students for real life work.

Ultimately the aim is to connect current communities on campus and allowing new students to find ways to get involved. This strategy hopes to influence the success of other strategies being implemented at the University.

== Strategy #4 - Creating a Cohesive Innovation and Entrepreneurship Environment ==

UTS is a large university with approximately 45,000 students currently enrolled. As a result, the UTS campus is vast and spread out over a large geographical area. As each building is home to a specific faculty, this creates a sense of pride and belonging within each faculty however it can also contribute to a feeling of disassociation with the rest of the university. This is especially true in the case of the innovation building which most students are completely unaware of.

After interviewing several students from the Faculty of Engineering and IT, we could not find a single student who was aware of the existence of this innovation building where so many of UTS' I&E programs take place. Through our own experiences at UTS, we have observed a rift between the students who frequently engage in I&E activities and those who do not. After speaking with students, most told us that they would have gotten involved in these activities had they known about them. From these discussions coupled with our own experiences, we believe the main cause of this is poor advertising and the physical isolation of I&E programs and initiatives within the innovation building.

Instead of perpetuating an environment in which students are forced to seek out I&E programs and events themselves, we believe the solution to this problem is to bring small I&E experiences into the everyday life of the UTS student. We are still investigating how best to do this with ongoing ideation, prototyping, and feedback.

=== Milestone #1 - Widespread I&E Advertising Across Campus ===

In order to increase studnet awareness of the current I&E offerings around UTS. We want to expand the advertising efforts of these programs so that they aren't aimed solely at those who are already involved in I&E. Currently, the majority of I&E advertising can be found around our innovation building and is much more scarce around the rest of the campus.

=== Milestone #2 - Integration of I&E Activities into University Wide Events ===

By integrating I&E activities into events like Open Day, we can create a culture of innovation amongst the future students of UTS. If we keep on track, by the time they get here there will be incresed opportunity and awareness to satisfy the needs of this culture.

=== Milestone #3 - Student I&E Ambassadors from Each Faculty ===

We aim to form teams of I&E ambassadors from across the university campus. These ambassadors would help us to disseminate information regarding I&E events and offerings while also educating students in I&E tools and techniques. As these teams grow and develop, we hope to create new I&E offerings with their help.

=== Milestone #4 - Innovation Islands Across Campus ===

Once a culture has been developed across the university, our goal is to create physical innovation islands in thoroughfares across the university. These islands would have information on I&E offerings, examples of past student creations, and student I&E ambassadors to teach new skills and answer questions.

=== Milestone #5 - Innovation Spaces Across Campus ===

As an extension to the innovation islands, we hope to create dedicated innovation spaces in each building at UTS. These spaces would originally be used for extra curricular activities and events relating to I&E however we hope that over time they could be used for subjects in which a component of I&E can be taught.

= Strategy #6: Formal Recognition of student involvement in extra-curricular activities =

During interviews with first year students at UTS we discovered that a lot of students were extremely unengaged with extra-curricular activities, were intimidated to be involved, were not aware of opportunities or were wanting to be involved but didn't have the belief they were capable enough. Many students would go to class and go back home or to work. As well as this, a lot of students also felt that they were unable to differentiate themselves when applying for a job and felt that the only way to do so was through extra-curricular activities, however, communicating their involvements was extremely difficult when integrating it in their CV. 

By combining these 2 issues, we were able to ideate a solution to incentivise students to become even more engaged with university life outside of classes. This resulted in the idea to implement and recognise students’ involvement formally in their academic transcript to show employer's a student's involvement during their course of their degree.

As a result of this, students would feel the need to become involved in university to help distinguish themselves from others when seeking a job and feel rewarded for doing so.

== '''Milstone 1:''' ==

We would begin speaking to employer's about what they seek when hiring people. We would conduct an empathy interview about students and the hiring process, and how extra-curricular activities could be implement when going through the job application process.

== '''Milestone 2:''' ==

We would speak to the Faculty of Engineering and IT about the demands of industry when it comes to job application, and provide them a list of recommendations that industry expect from universities in regards to student employment. 

== '''Milestone 3:''' ==

We would then get students to voice their concerns to Faculty about the needs of formal recognition in the Academic Transcript and then being to work closely with Faculty to being integrating this system.  Milestone 4:

After this, a checklist would be created to ensure that extra-curricular activities are monitored and thoroughly examined to give students opportunities to have these involvements formalised in their transcript. 

== '''Milestone 5:''' ==

Implement a IT system to ensure the smooth running of the documentation and recording of student involvement at UTS.

== '''Milestone 6:''' ==

Announce the creation of the new section of the Academic Transcript.

= Related Links =

UTS Home Page:

[https://www.uts.edu.au https://www.uts.edu.au]

UTS Hatchery Home Page:

[https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/opportunities/hatchery/overview https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/opportunities/hatchery/overview]

UTS FaceBook Page:

[https://www.facebook.com/UTSEngage/ https://www.facebook.com/UTSFEIT/]

Spring 2018 UIF:

[[Alastair Bate|Alastair Bate]]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/User:PreslandBoy Laurence Presland]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/User:JamesRyan James Ryan]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/User:Gavan_Huang Gavan Huang]

Spring 2017 UIF:

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Matthew_Childs Matthew Childs]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Peter_Cole Peter Cole]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Irene_Hsieh Irene Hsieh]

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Corey_Stewart Corey Stewart]

[[Category:Student Priorities|u]]

Priorities:University of Technology Sydney Student Priorities

2018-02-02T02:52:58Z

JamesRyan:

Priorities:University of Technology Sydney Student Priorities

2018-02-02T02:52:01Z

JamesRyan:

Priorities:University of Technology Sydney Student Priorities

2018-02-02T02:37:25Z

JamesRyan:

2018-01-14T14:00:53Z

JamesRyan: