Priorities:University of Dayton Student Priorities

Stratgey #1 - Linking Art and Science: Use Your WHOLE Brain

The essence of engineering is the use of logical constructs that creatively solve our everyday problems. So naturally, engineers are most effective when they are masters of science and are artists coherently — or in other words, when they are masters of both sides of their brains.
The importance of this topic can be seen everywhere. From company initiatives like Ford’s that create workshops to inspire their engineers to better create their products to university powerpoints that try to implement better ways of brainstorming that inspire innovation — the essence of being able to creatively solve is stressed.
Why? Probably due to the fact that engineers without abstract thought are good enough to improve on what already exists, but in order to shake the market or shape the future, you need engineers who hold that complete potential.
So how is UD’s Brain doing?  Here’s what we’ve heard:

• I’m a STEM major and I have no idea what’s happening on the other side of campus, and I’m pretty sure they don’t know what happening on mine
• I was mainly pushed into engineering for the money
• Engineering is all about math and science
• I was a computer engineer but felt that the part of me that wanted to know more about the world and improving upon it was left behind, so I changed majors
• you were so interested and well versed in our english class i thought you were an english major
• you’re gonna get somewhere because you won’t follow the stereotypes, mechanical birds vs. feathers **
• there are hardly any groups of friends that have diverse majors
• we notice that the business school better prepares their students for networking while the engineering school produces students who are more equip to work on teams and solve problems, but quite frankly to be effective in either career you need both of those skills.

What does this mean?

• our students don’t feel connected with other important parts of our campus
• our students aren’t easily able to connect with students of diverse backgrounds and interest
• the fatal view/practice of producing engineers who are solely human calculators are hindering those who could blossom in the field
• basic strengths that could better prepare all of our students aren’t completely introduced and therefore reinforce those stereotypes

So what can we do?

• starting small: program that better prepares our engineers for their full potential
• what this could become: BE an Engineer in your field (all majors - projects on campus, off campus, like an engineer)

What does this produce?

• students with a better understanding of their potential within their field
• students with a better understanding of other fields
• produces: intercommunication between both sides of campus, lowers confusion within the undeclared community

“STEM is how we evolve as a species. Art is how we are able to live with ourselves during the process.” --Khalilah Manson

Strategy #2: Mentorship program between students and local professionals

    The idea I set out to prototype was the "establishment of a mentoring program that exposes students to off-campus, industry careers in a variety of capacities"--for this brainstorm idea, I thought it would be best to engage students in a conversation regarding their openness to both long-term mentorships and short-term shadowing opportunities.

Strategy #3: Co-Learning

The prototype that I decided to test was this: In order to improve the first year experience of engineering students, we would create a class where students would be paired with outside businesses. This pairing would serve a dual role in helping not only the university students, but also the local businesses. The students would have to enter a local area business and see what things/ processes/ etc. that the company wanted to improve on. The students would then in their groups come back to the engineering building and design/ figure out what needed to be done. The students would learn and could put real world experience on their resumes, and the businesses would benefit because they could make/ save more money from these improvements. One thing that I wanted to address was keeping the students OVERLY engaged to stimulate their enthusiasm within the university. This co-learning process would be beneficial for students who want to learn if they really want to be engineers.

Strategy #4: Organizing Local Startup Tours and Visits
Organizing off campus opportunities for students to tour and visit local startups was the prototype I sought to test. This idea would not only benefit students who are looking to learn more about starting a business, but it would also benefit the startup as they are looking to gain more exposure and grow.

Related Links

University of Dayton

University of Dayton Student Priorities

University Innovation Fellows

Spring 2017:

David Fink

Khalilah Manson

Jake Tersigni

Madalyn Beban

Spring 2016:

Cameron Crasto

Suzy Dorsey

Reid Fuente

Daniela Lopez

Devin Spatz