Priorities:Saint Louis University Priorities

U101 Design Thinking Workshop Implementation

At Saint Louis University we have a first year class called U101 that is open for all students of all majors to take their first semester here at college. The class covers many different topics that relate to what resources the campus has to offer. With the resources available to students it would be beneficial for freshman to learn about the spaces we have for innovation and entrepreneurship here on campus. Because this class is open to all majors, interdisciplinary innovation can be harbored here and can carry across campus. A few steps that need to be taken to get this program off the ground include:

• Bringing the administrators in on the idea
• Writing a new curriculum
• Getting the curriculum approved
• Getting feedback from students based on what they have learned and their willingness to use the resources provided

Expanding Makerspaces in the Library and Student Center

At Saint Louis University we believe that the most important issue is the lack of maker space at high intense places where students work and study. Every student wishes to write on walls, use blackboards and an innovative place for that student would help him/her make a change at that particular university

When we approached our university we with this idea we thought that they were satisfied with the system they have at the moment but after having a talk with them, They had the same plan but could not dream of executing it properly without student support as they really wanted to know what we want as students in our maker place.

We learned:

1. They were planning to expand a portion for learning communities
2. Learning communities could use our concept
3. They have the funds to organise all the help we want

Our plan to accomplish this target has 8 targets :

Within 5 weeks

1. Propose this plan to professors to ask them about this plan
2. Propose it to our aluminis who would give a good amount of feedback through their experiences
3. Encourage students to propose ideas to ask them how they feel about our project
4. Research about institutes who have already worked on this and what were the difficulties they felt

Within 5 months - In Fall 2016

5. Make a prototype and experiment it and see the reviews we get after that

After 6 months of experimentation- In Summer 2016-2017

6. Make changes as per required and build our final design at the library and BSC

Every year - After Fall 2017

7. Innovate the place with the help of graduate and undergraduate students as per the ideas they have for us

After 2 years of successfully holding it- After - Fall 2019

8. Possibly try holding classes to at the same place

Expanding Horizons for the Weekly Innovation Challenge

We thought that if we could increase the number of participants during the challenge, there will be an entrepreneurial mindsets around the community.

We learned:

1. The biggest challenge concerning I&E at SLU is that awareness is is only in the College of Engineering.

2.  We need to generate that awareness by giving students a taste of what I&E is in order to set the campus on an I&E path.

3. Getting participation is hard sometimes. We would need a sort of incentive for the participants.

Next wewill work to get the ball rolling on erasing the entrepreneurial stereotype and instead creating awareness and educating students and faculty on what I&E really is.

What we’ll do in the next…

• 5 days: Meet with other Colleges to introduce the idea of innovation and entrepreneurship
• 5 weeks: Plan out specifics like time, date, location, the activities involved, volunteers, etc.
• 5 months: Host the weekly innovation challenge for the whole University and if it is successful, we will hope to have it multiple times during the 5 months

Related Links

Saint Louis University

Members:

Krusha Shah

Christine Maida

Akshit Kalantri