Priorities:Virginia Tech Student Priorities

As a Cohort, Continue to Seek Out Diverse Perspectives

In order to build a truly integrative project around innovation and entrepreneurship at the university, it is fundamental to obtain the opinions and perspectives from diverse groups, including students faculty and staff from several fields and also administration alumni and companies.

Strategies

• Set up booths on the Drillfield (center of campus), to get the community opinion about important topics.
• Promote small town hall sessions in different areas of campus aiming to get input from diverse groups.
• Stimulate discussion through VT official social media channels.
• Create fun events to get faculty, student, and administration together in collaborative challenges.
• Set up online polls asking all segments about their desired future paths for the university.
• Add a comments box to be displayed every time a person logs in on the university computing system so that feedback can be readily received.

2022-2023 Establish UIF's Long-Term Projection/Goals for Virginia Tech

As a cohort, we aim to build long-term relationships between upperclassmen and underclassmen on the Virginia Tech Campus to grow and develop our students professionally, emotionally, and socially.

Strategies

• Build an app that creates student-mentor pairings guided by a unique algorithm that matches eachother's interests and focuses.
• Bring awareness to the app through social media and Virginia Tech news sources.
• Work with Virginia Tech Professors to improve as well as promote the app via Innovate methods.
• Partner with VT Engage to make the app as directed as possible and add a roadmap for goals similar to their system.

2020-2021 Establish UIF's Long-Term Projection/Goals for Virginia Tech

As a cohort, we aim to create more awareness of innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities within the University amidst the increased emphasis on virtual and remote interaction.

Strategies

• Host or organize an "I&E Week" to highlight programs and opportunities at Virginia Tech.
• Create an application that has comprehensive lists of all courses offered at the university with filters to promote I&E based classes.
• Work with departments not typically associated with I&E to encourage new connections and provide partnering opportunities (ex. ICAT).
• Create a mentorship program to pair students with I&E experts.

2019-2020 Establish UIF’s Long-Term Projection/Goals for Virginia Tech

One of the main goals of the 2019-2020 UIF cohort is to pair holistic development of the student with the university's technical approach to education.

Strategies

• Create an app that provides a more user-friendly approach to accessing information related to clubs and organizations. This could be similar to Virginia Tech's webpage for clubs, GobblerConnect.
• Create an interdisciplinary course that focuses on project-based learning. These projects will be evaluated in a Shark Tank-like manner
• Create a study abroad program that focuses on collaboration with students, parents, local universities, and service projects
• Create a research and I&E showcase that students can attend to learn about resources and innovation outside of their majors while connecting them to faculty and other students

Virginia Tech/UIF, Journey to Collaborative Collisions Video

2018-2019 Establish UIF’s Long-Term Projection/Goals for Virginia Tech

One of the main goals we as the 2018-2019 UIF Cohort are trying to accomplish is making sure whatever we do as our change projects resonate for years to come.  We hope to instill a new type of culture at Virginia Tech, one that involves truly understanding and appreciating innovation and entrepreneurship. What this will do is create an atmosphere for students to go and make their ideas into reality.

Strategies

• Host events that can help students realize what innovation and entrepreneurship is
• Ask around campus to figure out how the university is currently defining innovation and entrepreneurship
• Work to connect different I&E programs to work together and share ideas
• Inform students through email or social media platform of opportunities on campus of ways their ideas can be fostered
• Cause a movement on campus to make I&E a lifestyle focus around campus

Enhance Communication Effectiveness Involving Collaborative Opportunities

A prevalent issue across the Virginia Tech campus is that students aren’t aware of the many opportunities that are offered for them. Because Virginia Tech’s campus is so large, it is challenging for all students to be included or even informed about certain opportunities offered; which can be simply because of a specified major. However, it would be beneficial to have a platform to ensure all students are aware of the various opportunities.

Strategies

• Develop a quick survey for students to inform them about organizations and opportunities
• Create a poll of students interested in innovation and connect them
• Distribute information cards in the dining halls
• Create platform with student network inputs
• Create an online weekly reminder for collaboration openings

Efficient Use of Existing I&E Spaces

 A lot of spaces amongst campuses are used in very different ways. One emerging issue that we have seen is that people are not aware of many spaces around campus. If there was a way to spread awareness amongst these spaces throughout campus this will cause people to actually use these spaces more often. In addition to the previous thought, we want to create a space specifically for I&E where multiple different backgrounds can come and share ideas.

Strategies

• Analyze existing spaces that can be improved upon
• Get feedback from students and faculty to see what and where improvements can be made
• Look into new spaces available for development for student use on campus
• Account for all spaces on campus that students use for studying, group work, I+E, etc

Design Coursework Promoting Interdisciplinary Collaboration; Students can begin to pair an understanding of I&E with an understanding of the resources Virginia Tech offers

The ultimate goal of UIF is to get students to understand the thinking processes that are associated with innovation and entrepreneurship. There is a lot of groundwork to be done beforehand; convincing the university to commit to this vision, communicating to students that these are important skills, laying out what an I&E thinking process is; and thus we want to include this priority as a multi-year goal. When students ultimately begin the learning process of innovation and entrepreneurship in the classroom, it is imperative that they have a strong understanding of  the campus ecosystem, so that they can act on new ideas, feel comfortable collaborating, and use their skills to be productive.

Strategies

• Go through the landscape canvas with a specific focus on I&E in the classroom. Identify the stakeholders who we can build our vision around. Is there someone who is already doing what we are striving to bring to the university as a whole? How do we involve the professors and teachers in the process?
• Get an understanding of how I&E is taught in places like the d.school. We need to know how to teach I&E.
• Draft a vision for teaching I&E at Virginia Tech, taking into account the resources and feelings towards I&E specific to our campus.
• Begin by implementing activities and modules into select classrooms who are well suited to receiving an I&E thought process, we can observe what works and what doesn’t.
• Ultimately, integrate ways of thinking about ideation and prototyping and human centered design into every students educational journey.

Partnerships With Industry and Research Bodies

Establishing more partnerships with industry and external sponsors that offer direct opportunities for students to learn and practice in real-world settings is a key component on a strategy aiming to expand the impact of innovation for students at the university.

Strategies

• Create multidisciplinary groups
• Ask for money
• Brag about company sponsors, include them in newsletters.
• Allow companies to sponsor more events on campus.
• Create more job fairs across all majors.
• Build close relationships with companies by keeping alumni involved. Get students access to them.

Related Links

Virginia Tech Overview 

Supporting Experiential Learning at Virginia Tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRXTFV5-Upo

Fall 2019

Alisha Bajaj

Will Makowski

Isa Núñez Nova

Michael Rauco

Fall 2018

Connor Mulligan

Shafe Ahmed

TJ Cosby

Sydney Miller

Fall 2017

Jarrodd Davis

Danielle Jeffers

Najla Mouchrek

Sunny Murthy

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Related links

▼ Virginia Tech

► Virginia Tech (2013 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2013 Spring cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2014 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2014 Spring cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2015 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2015 Spring cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2016 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2016 Spring cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2017 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2017 Spring cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2018 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2018 Spring cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2019 Fall cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2020 cohort)

► Virginia Tech (2022 cohort)

  School:Virginia Tech

  Priorities:Virginia Tech Student Priorities

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