Priorities:Boise State University Student Priorities

Project Pitch Video

Boise State University - Fall 2016 - Project Pitch 

Strategy #1: Increase Awareness of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Engineering

Engineering & Innovation Living-Learning Community

• Freshmen students with majors in the College of Innovation and Design and the College of Engineering live together and take a class which involves community service and team building, as well as aspects of the different majors encompassed by CID and Engineering.
• This Living-Learning Community (LLC) was just established (formerly it was only engineering students), and thus could be a great place to prototype the implementation of I&E concepts and engage freshmen with these ideas
• This is also a great place to test the effectiveness of LLCs in creating a community across disciplines

Introduce I&E Concepts in Introduction to Engineering Classes

• All incoming freshmen engineering students are required to take ENGR 120 (Introduction to Engineering) or ENGR 130 (Introduction to Engineering Applications)
• These courses are project-based, and teach students about engineering disciplines, as well as developing critical thinking and provides a "design-oriented engineering experience"
• ENGR 130 involves a service project where students work with a client from the community to apply the engineering design process to solve a problem
• While some design thinking is already a part of these courses, there could be room for the addition of more explicity human-centered design principles into the curriculum
• This could also be a platform to introduce engineering students to entrepreneurship concepts to which they may not otherwise be exposed 

Promote Growth of Vertically Integrated Projects

• The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program unites undergraduate education and faculty research in a team-based context
• Undergraduate VIP students earn academic credits, while faculty and graduate students benefit from the design/discovery efforts of their teams
• The Boise State University VIP program is part of a broad national and international consortium of universities
• While this program already exists in an early phase, more work remains to create campus-wide awareness about the vision and purpose of Vertically Integrated Projects in order to attract students and faculty to participate in current and new projects
• This program presents an inherent opportunity for a culture of I&E to thrive in a community of students and faculty from different disciplines across campus
• VIP projects differ from a traditional research lab setting in that the experiences, interests, and abilities of all members - faculty and students alike - are valued equally
• Close-knit VIP teams provide an opportunity to support vulnerable populations of students who might not finish their degrees without a supportive community and mentorship opportunities

Provide Opportunities for Entrepreneurship Mentoring to Engineering Students

• The New Product Development Lab, housed within the College of Engineering, mostly provides rapid prototyping and design consulting services to local businesses and entrepreneurs outside the university, but is also a resource available to student entrepreneurs that is not currently well-publicized
• While Venture College's services are available to all students, and they have been expanding their reach to Computer Science majors, this services is still unknown to most engineering majors
• A goal for the future would be to implement a program which partners engineering students with ideas with mentors from the local entrepreneurship community and/or students from the Business College to help them work toward commercializing their ideas (or co-developing ideas for new ventures)

Strategy #2: Building Resilience, Belonging and Esteem

Create and Integrate a Protected Class Period for Students Within Each Department for only Pro-Social or Self-Discovery Activities

• The Honors College provides dorms and multi-disciplinary classes to connect students from different majors
• Some Living-Learning Communities offer cross-disciplinary themes such as fitness, while some are major- or college-specific.
• The MakerLab is a makerspace hosted in the Boise State Library and run by librarians and student employees.  This space is very user-driven, and offers student- and staff-led workshops on technologies such as arduinos and 3D printing.  Students can print designs for free on the two 3D printers.

Integrate Themes of Self-Care and Self-Awareness into Syllabi

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Strategy #3: Increase Overall Student Awareness of I&E Concepts and Resources

Create a Website for I&E Resources

• Create a one-page website with links to relevant resources on and off campus
• Publish through the College of Innovation and Design's website
• Advertise the website in department email newsletters across campus
• Try to get a link put on students' my.Boisestate pages

Freshmen Orientation Design Thinking Pop-Up

• Create a design thinking pop-up program as part of freshmen orientation
• Engage students to think about what they want to do in terms of a mission, not just a major

Integrate Design Thinking Concepts into University Foundations Courses

• All incoming Boise State students are required to take these courses
• Each section explores a different concept (e.g. "The History and Future of Education", "Invention and Discovery")
• While innovation is a core part of the mission of the UF program, design thinking is not an explicit part of the curriculum of most sections right now
• This might be another great place to introduce I&E concepts to freshmen

Reach Out to Underserved Groups Through the Institute for STEM and Diversity

• The Institute for STEM and Diversity runs a number of programs aimed at underserved populations such as minorities and students who are the first in their families to go to college
• This could be a great connection to reach out to these populations, who might not otherwise be reached

Related Links

Boise State University

Boise State University Student Priorities

University Innovation Fellows

Spring 2016:

Ann Delaney

Kelly Schutt

Rebecka Seward

Fall 2016:

Sienna George

Alexander Schloss

Donovan Kay