Priorities:The Ohio State University Student Priorities

Overview

The Ohio State University offers premier servives to its students, particular with regards to innovation in research settings. This is made possible by organizations like the Undergraduate Research Office, OSU Undergraudate Fellowship Office, as well as highly supportive student organizations like the Business Builder's Club and Undergraduate Student Government. However, due to the inherently large nature of the university, targeted and precise attention to student innovation is sometimes difficult, and dissuades some of the most passionate and capable students from pursuing long-term innovations. In an effort to remedy such perception, and launch initatives to extend the long-term I&E Ecosystem at Ohio State to advise upon, incubate and accelrate student generated ideas, the following Student Priorities Map has been created.

Strategy #1: Realizing the Inherent Potential Value on Ohio State Campus

The first area of focus, or ‘strategy,’ is based off of the Realized section of the landscape canvas. The underlying theme by which this strategy is formed is the fact that there is no centralized institution for financial, advisory and basic technology services offered for student innovation incubation. As such, the tactics employed will seek to create innovation spaces modeled off of the nearby spaces which are off-campus, but include sponsorships and partnerships from the university.

Following are an array of strategies over a 2-3 year period:

Tactic #1: Development of Buckeye Innovation Center

• Description: In the process of mapping student perception of I&E on campus, it was elucidated that the student body population tends to be unaware of misinformed of an ideal resource or facility to move an impassioned idea to the next level. This analysis was performed primarily with science and engineering undergraduate and graduate students, and led to the conclusion that in order to provide an immersive experience for young innovators, innovators need to be better educated as to what resources are conveniently made available for them. As a result, the tactical solutions are two-tiered. Firstly, the university must greatly improve its communication of its resources under a centralized institution, so as to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in one general setting. Secondly, students must be provided with the basic resources necessary to transform an impassioned idea, theory, technology or concept into a pragmatic, human centric, validated initiative. The resources necessary to effectively do so will be discussed extensively below.

• Team Leaders: Peeyush Shrivastava, Samuel Whipple (USG), Dr. Michael Camp, PhD (Fisher College of Business), Dr. Amy Acton, MD, MPH (College of Public Health) and Krystal Geyer (Student Program Manager at TCO). Contact Person: Peeyush Shrivastava (peeyush.shrivastava@genetesis.com)

• Milestones:

1.  Scouting of open (or offered) spaces to determine size, condition, and work required to make it usable. Leads: TCO accepting proposals for 2nd floor development plans. Schedule: January 2015
2.  Creation of a potential features list for required items such as whiteboards, high speed internet, advisory services, high tech equipment etc. Schedule: January 2015
3. Identification of potential sponsors/donors/partners for purchase and installment of potential features from 2. Leads: USG, TechColumbus, OSU Mechanical Engineering. Schedule: February 2015
4.  Facility preparation for makerspace/incubation to begin Schedule: By June 2015, facility should be prepared for incubation 
5. Design a team of Executive Board members (undergraduate and graduate students) to facilitate I&E Growth and Development with regular keynotes, crash sessions, social events, hackathons and more. Ensure that this team is well trained before the formal announcement of the center. Schedule: August 2015 (prior to formal announcment in 6). 
6. "Buckeye Innovation Center" Ribbon Cutting: Campuswide announcement about grand opening of OSU's first centralized space committed to immersive student entrepreneurship, innovation and design. Thinking to organize a TEDx like event with keynotes and advisors of the facility. Schedule: August 2015 (Autumn Semester)

Tactic #2: Integrating Existing Frameworks into a Unified Buckeye Innovation Movement

• Description: A separate but equally effective tactic to create the Buckeye Innovation movement would be to consolidate all of the existing I&E movements on campus to more of a solidifed, and unified effort that would be well publicized, and would solve one of the most blatantly obvious problems in the entrepreneurial ecosystem: good ideas are grown with the feedback and experiences of like-minded, passionate individuals. In other words, in order to meet the needs of the Buckeye Innovation movement, it is imperative to link together all of the people who are involved in shaping this community. Interviews with several entrepreneurs and students have validated one key, consistent problem: some of the best entrepreneurs and innovators on campus don't even know each other.  

• Team Leader: Peeyush Shrivastava and Dr. Michael Camp, PhD (Fisher College of Business), along with assistance from undergraduate students interested in pursuing the movement. 

• Milestones:

1.  Using the Landscape Canvas, identify all of the isolated components of the faculty and student I&E ecosystem, and identify their key players, movements, programs and whatnot. Some of the first to target include the Center for Entrepreneurship and their yearly trip to Silicon Valley, The Ohio State University Business Plan Competition, and TechColumbus's Concept Academy. Schedule: Novemeber 2014
2. Identify the most promising components of each of these different initiatives with the help of a team of undergraduate and graduate students. Metrics for identification will include critical mass of students attained, funding provided, and success stories. Schedule: January 2014
3. Meet with the key personnel involved with spearheading each of the identified movements, discuss the research on other similar movements. Schedule: February 2014
4. Create an organization "Buckeye Innovation Movement" and group all of the students and key faculty involved with each successful submovement on campus to create one centralized movement to consolidate all of the cogs involved with the well-oiled innovation machine on campus. Schedule: April 2014

Strategy #2: Incorporating Novel Learning Methods Into Curriculum Design

The underlying theme by which this strategy is formed is the fact that there is an increased need for student creativity and innovation in the workplace and in the global market. Appropriately, this has resulted in phenomena like reverse innovation, in which cost effective and functional tools are created for applications in third world countries, and subsequently gain traction in more developed markets as cost saving alternatives. As such, the tactics employed below seek to create immersive entrepreneurial courses where processes 

Following are an array of strategies over a 2-3 year period:

Tactic #1: Student Led Discussion and Immersion

• Description: Mark Twain once said that "I never let my schooling interfere with my education". His purpose here was not to denounce the value of education, but rather to explicate upon the fact that conventional education methods do not effectively promote creativity in and out of the classroom. They do not engage students to the point where individuals feel the passion or desire to be mission driven, and work towards an end goal that they design for themself. The goal of this tactic is to ensure that experimentally successful techniques, such as the Harkness Learning Method, be introduced into course which are inherently meant to teach immersive cocnepts like managerial economics, entrepreneurship, business plan development, but also courses likes Global Public Health, Medical Device Commercialization and more. 

• Team Leaders: Peeyush Shrivastava, Dr. Michael Camp, PhD (Fisher College of Business), Dr. Amy Acton, MD, MPH (College of Public Health). Dr. Balakrishna Hardias, PhD (Director of Device Commercialization at University of Cincinnati)

• Milestones:
  • Identify courses that would be able to incorporate Harkness learning methods (See list from above). Compile a list of the faculty involved with these courses. Schedule: End of October 2014
  • Meet with these faculty members and discuss and inform about Harkness method, and create experimental plans to incorporate Harkness into some of the curriculum, based off of existent Harkness frameworks. Schedule: December 2014
  • Attempt to include Harkness style lessons to test the waters for the success of the program. Model this Harkness method by creating problems, and simply allowing the lecturer to facilitate as opposed to teach how to solve. Class size should be small, and each individual should be assessed for responsiveness. Schedule: February 2015 (Spring Semester)
  • Use data and anecdotal successes from small scale implementation to validate the model of large scale Harkness method usage. Attempt to create courses as a part of a series on I&E. Schedule: June 2015

Tactic #2: Mentor Driven Experiences

• Description: Having laboratory classes incorporated into lecture classes is meant to provide students with hands on experience, but do to the very nature of the lab courses in the first few years of an undergrad's life, the passion and drive underlying an individual's creative process can be significantly hindered. Therefore, it is reccomended that immersive experiences be tailored for students who show their passion for problem solving. Mission driven students and entrepreneurs should be paired with researchers, advisors, mentors and other industry veterans involved on/near campus as part of an initiative to grow 

• Team Leaders: Peeyush Shrivastava, Dr. Michael Camp, PhD (Fisher College of Business), Krystal Geyer, 

• Milestones:
  • Comprehensive list of mentors/advisors who have the ability to provide immersive experience for students (individuals involved with the large Makerspace in Columbus Downtown, TCO, Tech Columbus, BioOhio startup companies with funding and more. Schedule: January 2015
  • Identify a small, targeted student population with the drive to commit to an immersive experience, and use this to validate the model for a much larger integration. Schedule: Janurary 2015 (Concurrent with above) 
  • Attempt to use this methodolgy for undergrads exploring research. Schedule: TBD

Strategy #3: Accelerated Programs to Encourage Translational Problem Solving

Some innovative research universities like RPI have formed accelerated BS-PhD Programs so as to promote an interdiciplinary set of problem solving skills very early on for their students. This is an initiative that would be incredibly effective at an institution as large as Ohio State, especially if it were tailored to a small program, much like the Biomedical Science Undergraduate Program. This program has a major emphasis on research, and is limited to 25 students per year, enabling longitudinal analysis to be quite pragmatic. An accelerated BS-PhD degree could potentially increase the quantity and quality of innovation being developed by students by providing highly motivated students with the resources, framework, and peer ecosystem necessary to pursue their innovations via research and immersive learning. 

Tactic #1: Accelerated BS-PhD Program incorporated into Undergraduate Biomedical Science

• Description: The prupose of this tactic is to develop a highly strategic relationship between the Undergraduate Biomedical Science Major and the Integrated Biomedical Graduate Program (IBGP) so as to faciliate a means of encouraging student innovation via research and problem solving as early as a student's first year of college. 

• Team Leaders: Peeyush Shrivastava, Dr. Michael Camp, PhD (Fisher College of Business).

• Milestones:
  • Speak to Steven Mousetes and Dr. John Gunn from Undergraduate Biomedical Science Program, and arrange a meeting with the directors of the IBGP. Schedule: Novemeber 2014
  • Identify universities which have adopted such an accelerated program, and identify the successes and tangible impacts on I&E as well as the generic progress of the university in preparation for a series of meetings to address potential adoption. Schedule: December 2014
  • Meet with the decision makers on this front. Schedule: TBD

Tactic #2: Accelerated BS-MS Program for Ohio State University

• Description: Similar to Tactic 1, this would be a method of attaining broader appeal for the university's emphasis on research innovation by creating a generic accelerated BS-MS Program for Ohio State. This would have the same impact as the above tactic, but would involve several different approvals from several different colleges. Dr. Drake seems supportive of this kind of path as it is resemblant of a 21st century emphasis on interdisciplinary team skills. 

• Team Leaders: Peeyush Shrivastava, Dr. Michael Camp, PhD (Fisher College of Business).

• Milestones:
  • Speak to Steven Mousetes and Dr. John Gunn from Undergraduate Biomedical Science Program, and arrange a meeting with the directors of the IBGP. Schedule: Novemeber 2014
  • Identify universities which have adopted such an accelerated program, and identify the successes and tangible impacts on I&E as well as the generic progress of the university in preparation for a series of meetings to address potential adoption. Schedule: December 2014
  • Meet with the decision makers on this front. Schedule: TBD

Related Links

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Peeyush Shrivastava