University Innovation Fellows - User contributions [en]

Priorities:Worcester polytechnic institute student priorities

2016-02-12T05:07:10Z

Vmsabo: Created page with "<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <li><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseli..."

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<li>Test Kitchen<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>6-8 tangible milestones<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Add underclassmen to the team of “Chefs” to ensure the longevity of the organization.</li>
<li>Establish a community of at least 500 students before the Foisie Innovation Studio is finished</li>
<li>Develop x amount of self sustaining teams</li>
<li>Establish a consistent schedule of meetings with the general body and community</li>
<li>create an online interface for students to promote, develop, and finalize projects and ideas (Partnr)</li>
<li>Give students the chance to learn how to integrate Scrum Agile Business Practices into WPI curriculum and projects</li>
<li>Tap into the WPI MQP system by taking incompleted or projects in an early stage of development and supplying the teams.</li>
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<li>WPI Pitch Competition<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Tangible Milestones<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Garner interest within the faculty to find a faculty sponsor.</li>
<li>Use new faculty resources to organize test event with the student activities office.</li>
<li>Find local on campus sponsors to get prizes to offer students in the first event to excite them and increase participation</li>
<li>During the first event have a successful WPI alumni (in the business field) talk about successful pitches, and what they are composed of</li>
<li>After initial trial, seek out larger more well known corporate sponsors to give prizes and help run event, also increasing student interest.</li>
<li>Hold full scale event, with marketing from WPI to get the word out to students</li>
<li>Look for full scale support and sponsorship from the school of business in order to ensure longevity and continuation in the future.</li>
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<li>Centralized Promotion of Campus Innovation Using Video<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Tangible Milestones<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Create a low cost prototype of the site</li>
<li>Identify first groups and events to spotlight</li>
<li>Produce first videos and share through different channels</li>
<li>Gauge campus response to video format</li>
<li>Use feedback to perfect the style of the videos</li>
<li>Utilize the platform to spread the word on events and other opportunities on campus</li>
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<li>Creation of user friendly website for access to information about entrepreneurial resources on campus<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Tangible Milestones<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Continue Cataloging all entrepreneurship as started in the UIF Program (April 2016)</li>
<li>Obtain WPI Institutional Review board permission to use a survey to gather information (April 2016)</li>
<li>Create and design a survey to find out what students/faculty want to see implemented in the website.  (May 2016)</li>
<li>Analyze the data from the survey and brainstorm ideas for the layout of the website as well as information that will be shown. (May 2016 - June 2016)</li>
<li>Speak to professors/staff with expertise in web design to begin to develop a schematic for the creation of the website. (June 2016 - July 2016)</li>
<li>Work with the Computer Science Department to use seniors to help build the website and count their progress towards their senior year project. (August 2016)</li>
<li>Beta test and debug the website using a small student population (March 2017)</li>
<li>Launch the website and have a launch party :) . (May 2017)</li>
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<li>Professor Evaluation database to assess active learning techniques utilized in the classroom.<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Tangible Milestones<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">
<li>Obtain WPI Institutional Review board permission to use a survey to gather information(April 2016)</li>
<li>Design a survey to assess the levels of active learning used by professors in their respective classes. (May 2016)</li>
<li>Analyze the data and identify key areas that could use improvement. (June 2016-August 2016)</li>
<li>Form a student led group to lobby for the use of active learning techniques in the classroom (September 2016 - November 2016)</li>
<li>Meet with the head of each department to discuss the findings and create a contingency plan to implement changes in the curriculum. (December 2016- January 2017)</li>
<li>Design an action plan to get other professors involved with the committee and provide them with the resources they need to learn more about active learning. (May 2017)</li>
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Fellow:Zack Ericson

2016-02-12T03:58:24Z

Vmsabo: Created page with "thumbA native of the Hudson Valley in New York, Zack came to WPI to get an education in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus on how to actually apply it in ..."

[[File:Zack5.jpg|thumb]]A native of the Hudson Valley in New York, Zack came to WPI to get an education in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus on how to actually apply it in the world. He especially has an interest in energy and energy management. During his time on campus so far, Zack has been involved in greek life (Serving various roles including Vice President of his chapter and VP of the campus greek governing body), as a student employee, served as an orientation leader, and various other student groups including athletics. While participating in these various organizations, Zack saw a lack of opportunity for students to innovate, which brings him to the UIF program. When not involved on campus, Zack enjoys Skiing, playing soccer, tennis and hanging out with friends! This March Zack will travel to Mandi, India for 3 months to engage in an immersive learning experience. He will implement a rainwater harvesting system in this town in order to help them better be independent from public water, or the lack thereof.

[[Category:Student Contributions|z]]

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:54:44Z

Vmsabo:

[[File:25b9438.jpg|thumb|25b9438.jpg]]Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biofuels industry or in energy management. I am very much interested in sustainable development as a society in terms of energy production, resource management, and food production. It is the education of and advocacy for these environmentally conscious principles that will change the way we look at life on this planet. During my past 3 years in school, I have learned the great importance of project-based learning through experiences I've had in certain courses but also experiences I have missed out on. Project-based learning is a process that teaches critical problem solving without the fear of failure and with the focus on a creating value in a product. In a world that is moving toward a "gig-based" economy of people moving in and out of different kinds of work, fast paced project development skills and the ability to learn quickly will prove to be critical in training future problem solvers.With these strong feelings in mind, I began working with a group of friends on an idea to bring project-based education to an online setting. We are building our product to attract project enthusiasts and also to promote project work outside of regular coursework. Our application will be a place for professional networking to meet other people interested in similar project work, and it will also be a place to build a portfolio to showcase the project work you complete and the skills you develop. Aside from all of that, I play the drums, cook, explore local food, keep up to date on world news (props to Reddit), talk about hard topics and I have recently taken an interest in Middle Eastern history (past 100 years). 

[[Category:Student Contributors|v]]

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:53:55Z

Vmsabo:

[[File:25b9438.jpg|thumb]]Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biofuels industry or in energy management. I am very much interested in sustainable development as a society in terms of energy production, resource management, and food production. It is the education of and advocacy for these environmentally conscious principles that will change the way we look at life on this planet. During my past 3 years in school, I have learned the great importance of project-based learning through experiences I've had in certain courses but also experiences I have missed out on. Project-based learning is a process that teaches critical problem solving without the fear of failure and with the focus on a creating value in a product. In a world that is moving toward a "gig-based" economy of people moving in and out of different kinds of work, fast paced project development skills and the ability to learn quickly will prove to be critical in training future problem solvers.With these strong feelings in mind, I began working with a group of friends on an idea to bring project-based education to an online setting. We are building our product to attract project enthusiasts and also to promote project work outside of regular coursework. Our application will be a place for professional networking to meet other people interested in similar project work, and it will also be a place to build a portfolio to showcase the project work you complete and the skills you develop. Aside from all of that, I play the drums, cook, explore local food, keep up to date on world news (props to Reddit), talk about hard topics and I have recently taken an interest in Middle Eastern history (past 100 years). 

[[Category:Student Contributors|v]]

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:52:49Z

Vmsabo:

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:51:00Z

Vmsabo:

[[Category:StudentContributors|v]]

[[File:25b9438.jpg|thumb]]

Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biofuels industry or in energy management. I am very much interested in sustainable development as a society in terms of energy production, resource management, and food production. It is the education of and advocacy for these environmentally conscious principles that will change the way we look at life on this planet. During my past 3 years in school, I have learned the great importance of project-based learning through experiences I've had in certain courses but also experiences I have missed out on. Project-based learning is a process that teaches critical problem solving without the fear of failure and with the focus on a creating value in a product. In a world that is moving toward a "gig-based" economy of people moving in and out of different kinds of work, fast paced project development skills and the ability to learn quickly will prove to be critical in training future problem solvers.With these strong feelings in mind, I began working with a group of friends on an idea to bring project-based education to an online setting. We are building our product to attract project enthusiasts and also to promote project work outside of regular coursework. Our application will be a place for professional networking to meet other people interested in similar project work, and it will also be a place to build a portfolio to showcase the project work you complete and the skills you develop. Aside from all of that, I play the drums, cook, explore local food, keep up to date on world news (props to Reddit), talk about hard topics and I have recently taken an interest in Middle Eastern history (past 100 years). 

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:49:14Z

Vmsabo:

[[Category:StudentContributors:v]]

[[File:25b9438.jpg|thumb|25b9438.jpg]]

Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biofuels industry or in energy management. I am very much interested in sustainable development as a society in terms of energy production, resource management, and food production. It is the education of and advocacy for these environmentally conscious principles that will change the way we look at life on this planet. During my past 3 years in school, I have learned the great importance of project-based learning through experiences I've had in certain courses but also experiences I have missed out on. Project-based learning is a process that teaches critical problem solving without the fear of failure and with the focus on a creating value in a product. In a world that is moving toward a "gig-based" economy of people moving in and out of different kinds of work, fast paced project development skills and the ability to learn quickly will prove to be critical in training future problem solvers.With these strong feelings in mind, I began working with a group of friends on an idea to bring project-based education to an online setting. We are building our product to attract project enthusiasts and also to promote project work outside of regular coursework. Our application will be a place for professional networking to meet other people interested in similar project work, and it will also be a place to build a portfolio to showcase the project work you complete and the skills you develop. Aside from all of that, I play the drums, cook, explore local food, keep up to date on world news (props to Reddit), talk about hard topics and I have recently taken an interest in Middle Eastern history (past 100 years). 

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:45:02Z

Vmsabo:

[[Category:StudentContributors]v]

[[File:25b9438.jpg|thumb]]

Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biofuels industry or in energy management. I am very much interested in sustainable development as a society in terms of energy production, resource management, and food production. It is the education of and advocacy for these environmentally conscious principles that will change the way we look at life on this planet. During my past 3 years in school, I have learned the great importance of project-based learning through experiences I've had in certain courses but also experiences I have missed out on. Project-based learning is a process that teaches critical problem solving without the fear of failure and with the focus on a creating value in a product. In a world that is moving toward a "gig-based" economy of people moving in and out of different kinds of work, fast paced project development skills and the ability to learn quickly will prove to be critical in training future problem solvers.With these strong feelings in mind, I began working with a group of friends on an idea to bring project-based education to an online setting. We are building our product to attract project enthusiasts and also to promote project work outside of regular coursework. Our application will be a place for professional networking to meet other people interested in similar project work, and it will also be a place to build a portfolio to showcase the project work you complete and the skills you develop. Aside from all of that, I play the drums, cook, explore local food, keep up to date on world news (props to Reddit), talk about hard topics and I have recently taken an interest in Middle Eastern history (past 100 years). 

File:Zack5.jpg

2016-02-12T03:43:57Z

Vmsabo: zack5!

zack5!

File:25b9438.jpg

2016-02-12T03:40:08Z

Vmsabo: Vinny picszsz

Vinny picszsz

Fellow:Vinny Sabo

2016-02-12T03:32:28Z

Vmsabo: Created page with "Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biof..."

Hi! My name is Vinny Sabo, and I am a senior Chemical Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. I hope to start my career by working in the biofuels industry or in energy management. I am very much interested in sustainable development as a society in terms of energy production, resource management, and food production. It is the education of and advocacy for these environmentally conscious principles that will change the way we look at life on this planet. During my past 3 years in school, I have learned the great importance of project-based learning through experiences I've had in certain courses but also experiences I have missed out on. Project-based learning is a process that teaches critical problem solving without the fear of failure and with the focus on a creating value in a product. In a world that is moving toward a "gig-based" economy of people moving in and out of different kinds of work, fast paced project development skills and the ability to learn quickly will prove to be critical in training future problem solvers.With these strong feelings in mind, I began working with a group of friends on an idea to bring project-based education to an online setting. We are building our product to attract project enthusiasts and also to promote project work outside of regular coursework. Our application will be a place for professional networking to meet other people interested in similar project work, and it will also be a place to build a portfolio to showcase the project work you complete and the skills you develop. Aside from all of that, I play the drums, cook, explore local food, keep up to date on world news (props to Reddit), talk about hard topics and I have recently taken an interest in Middle Eastern history (past 100 years). [[Category:StudentContributors]v]

Resource:How to maintain your vision despite political pushback

2016-01-22T21:20:05Z

Vmsabo:

[[Category:Discover]]

[[Category: |Discover]]Background
 
Alex Kneier is a junior at Ohio University, pursuing his undergraduate degrees in both Entrepreneurship and Management.  He is a visionary, an aspiring entrepreneur, and an inherent maker.  Being a maker and embracing the 3D printing movement has shaped Alex’s mindset toward innovation and the speed at which it can be accomplished.  Passionate for the outdoors and sustainability, he expects to one day change the world through means of social entrepreneurship. Focusing on school and graduating with honors currently takes precedence in his life, but in his spare time, he works in leadership roles for two entrepreneurial clubs: Enactus and OU Entrepreneurs.  Alex is also working on small business ventures of his own and takes time to improve upon his own personal development.

[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Alex_Kneier http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Alex_Kneier]



Overview
 
Whenever a vision is created to expand something that currently exists, or furthermore to create something new, there is bound to be “Pushback” or resistance.  This resistance comes from creating something that is new and unknown.  “Pushback” is essentially any outside challenge you may encounter while creating change.  This Wiki discusses how overcoming those challenges and moreover how to be best prepared to create the optimal result for your venture.  Pushback is not inherently, it can sometimes bring new ideas, or shed new light on a situation that you had not thought of; the tips below are about how to get the most out of any situation where you may experience “Pushback”.
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Tips for Others


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It's critical to maintain the sense of professionalism while conducting business and remembering who is “in charge” in each situation.  Maintaining relationships is paramount to ensuring the success of the project as a whole as each member of the team is important.  One missing piece can put a wrench in the works.
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Surround yourself with others who are passionate about your project and are willing to give honest feedback. Having this type of input is extremely valuable to help guide projects from wasting time on possible dead end ideas or trying to reinvent the wheel.
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Not all pushback is a bad thing. Sometimes resistance can be a sign that your vision might not be fully developed. Maybe you are targeting the wrong audience, or not fully addressing the real needs of the community. While it is important to be persistent with your idea, it pays to listen to the feedback others are giving so you can identify things you may have overlooked.
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Be cognizant of promoting with keywords such as “entrepreneurship” since terms like these may scare away part of the audience you want to appeal to.
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Highlighting the number of people that your project will benefit as well as how many people are currently backing your project helps when presenting to an institution.
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Lessons learned
 
When one has a “vision” that they are presenting to others, especially superiors, it is vital to go to the meeting with a developed plan. Something that clearly and coherently explains what your goals are. This not only allows for easier communication between multiple parties, but also demonstrates your commitment to your idea.
 
Communicating with superiors can be a delicate process. Often they are those who are older, have more experience, and more “political” weight than you. It is important to treat them with the respect you would a higher-up, however age and experience does not equate validity. If you strongly believe in something, stand up for it, and be prepared to have a solid defense.
 
If one is proposing an idea to a large institution, it is beneficial to have a team/network of support. Though it may be possible to complete a task alone, the more individuals that see the importance in your work and are willing to contribute and endorse your cause, the easier it may be for your goal to be achieved.
 
Types of pushback
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Academia: Pushback may come from within your college or university. Sometimes it may be difficult to persuade faculty and administration to join your cause.
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Governmental: Pushback may arise from restrictions set forth legally by a governing body (state or federal).  It can also be derailed by political agendas and funding depending on the topic.    
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Communal: Pushback may also come from the general community at large due to varying beliefs or disconnection with your goal.
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Success Stories
 
For the duration of Alex’s studies at Ohio State University, there had not been a common place for students to meet up and collaborate on projects or to solve different problems on their school’s campus. This was detrimental to Ohio State, as most other schools with Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) already had or were starting to build incubators, maker-spaces, and design studios on their campuses.  The concept of a dedicated space to ideating and interdisciplinary collaboration was becoming more important to the success of a school’s I&E program, and Alex wanted to make sure Ohio State did not fall behind.
 
The idea for the C-Suite, initially the C.H.I.E.F building, came when Alex and some of his fellow I&E students heard that their President was moving out of his house in the center of campus to a new location.  When they heard this building needed a new purpose, Alex and the other students jumped on the idea to make this into an on-campus incubator.  Upon starting the proposal process, the team quickly realized that this would not be much of a smooth process.
 
The faculty and students the team spoke with agreed that a physical place for collaboration on campus was a necessary improvement.  Although the idea was received well, the deans and other administration on campus did not take the student’s plans to be a serious proposal.  The team realized that they would need to put together something more concrete and convincing in order to show the administration that they were serious about moving forward with this plan and would need their approval and help.
 
The team struggled with a lack of faculty assistance and overall funding for months before they received steady assistance from faculty and eventual financial backing.  Alex and his team learned that it is important for change to come from within first.  From there, getting students on board with their idea and receiving the support of committed faculty would guarantee success for their incubator.
 
[http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford_how_messy_problems_can_inspire_creativity?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TEDTalks_audio+(TEDTalks+Audio+-+Site) http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford_how_messy_problems_can_inspire_creativity?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TEDTalks_audio+(TEDTalks+Audio+-+Site)]
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