Priorities:University of Maryland College Park Student Priorities

Overview

The University of Maryland, College Park has a wealth of Innovation and Entrepreneurship resources for both its students and its faculty. In a formal way, the University has taken action to promote I&E on campus mainly through its offerings in the Smith School of Business, through the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship as well as through M.TECH within the Clark School of Engineering.

University of Maryland also provides its incoming students with the opportunity to live within a Living Learning Community, if you know you are interested in certain subjects, it is an opportunity to surround yourself with academically like minded faculty and students.

On the other end of the spectrum, the University of Maryland, College Park is a regional force for innovation. Our proximity to federal agencices and the nation’s capital allow for strategic partnerships to be formed and high level facilities to be accessible for research and incubation purposed. If you have a start up or a venture and you are in need of funding, tech transfer, high level incubation space or business mentors, the University can bolster your process through its resources, partnerships and connection to the reason.

However, what happens if you come to school either not knowing exactly what you want to do or you THINK you know what you want to do and don’t think you fall under the category of and entrepreneur or engineer exclusively. You CAN get involved. You CAN test ideas because maybe you or you and your team will generate the next big thing through your fresh, curious perspective and the skill sets you learn through the resources below.

Or maybe you are an engineer or consider yourself an entrepreneur – this is your chance to resist fragmentation is one area of your academic experience and cross polinate your ideas with the equal brilliance of peers with different perspectives and different expertise.

Use the resources at hand or create the ones that don’t exist. Be a part of this movement and let the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship ignite inspiration in you as your ideas collide with others at the university to create change!

Strategy #1: Raising Perception and On-Campus Innovation and Entrepreneurship Opportunities for All

Following are an array of strategies that will fully address Gap #1 over a 2-3 year period:

ACTIVATING CREATIVITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH DESIGN 

Design Tent events are a chance for students to come together to “play under the same tent” and exchange ideas. Through collaboration that is dynamic, active, and fun, these events aim to generate new interests, raise awareness and energize participants to cross-pollinate ideas. The focus of the January 2014 Design Tent was to re-think our perception of garbage and use materials from local waste streams to design and build prototypes to test entrepreneurial ideas. The value of waste was repurposed into both a process and product that brought together (STEAM) students and exposed them to the innovation process through iterative making and fabrication.  

• • Team Leader(s): Valerie Sherry and Natalya Dikanov with the help of mDIL and Linear Gallery members
  • Open Positions: contact design.impact.lab@gmail.com if interested in helping to sponsor, coordinate or participate in next Design tent event!
  • Milestones:
    • The first Design Tent event was co-hosted by [mDIL] Maryland Design Impact Lab and the Linear Gallery
    • The event was held as a two-day workshop January 22-23, 2014
    • Visiting Professionals and Facilitators included International firm, REFUNC and local firm Salvaging Creativity
    • Participants included: 50+ students
    • Disciplines involved: Over 16 different disciplines
    • A tremendous thank you to our Event Sponsors: Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Architecture Department, The Kibel Gallery
    • A stopmotion video of some of the event work can be seen at the following link:
    • This first Design Tent and REFUNC Workshop was also featured in a student curated Linear Gallery exhibition called Transforming Waste
  • ​UPCOMING EVENTS:
    • Next Design Tent will be co hosted by the [mDIL] Maryland Design Impact Lab, Rawlings Undergraduate Leadership Program and Books Breaking Borders Innovation Team. 
    • INTERDISCIPLINARY PLAY THROUGH MAKING. 

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 Tactic #2: TEDx Talks

• What better way to raise awareness among students that they, too, can be involved with I & E than by INSPIRING! “Ideas worth spreading”
• Team Leader:: Open Position – Team Leader TBD
• Milestones:
  •  

Tactic #3: Faculty Workshop Weekend

• The purpose of this faculty workshop is to promote and instill the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation in the classroom. The goal is that their inspiration filters down to students!
• Team Leader:: Open Position – Team Leader TBD
• Milestones:

Strategy #2: Create the Platform for Applied Learning & ACTION

Following are an array of strategies that will fully address Gap #2 over a 2-3 year period:

== Tactic #1: maryland Design Impact Lab (mDIL)

Maryland Design Impact Lab [mDIL] is a cross-disciplinary collaborative focused on leveraging the diverse expertise of students and using design-thinking methods to create social change at multiple scales. This student led organization was founded in Fall 2013 and hosted the first “Design Tent” in January 2014. Moving forward, mDIL will host Design Tents throughout each semester at the University of Maryland, College Park. 

• ANYONE can join. All that is required is commitment, curiosity, and critical thinking! It is not only exciting to be activated, as students, to generate ideas, now you have a chance to put those ideas into action, to implement and thereby create impact by following through with an idea. Relish in the opportunities presented to us at such a great institution, bridge connections between peers in other disciplines at any level, freshman undergrad to Doctoral student. Work in variable sized teams to bring projects from the idea phase to fruition whether from design to building or product idea to commercialization. Design Impact Lab is a trans-disciplinary student collaborative centered around leveraging diverse expertise and using design thinking to create impact at multiple scales by bringing ideas to implementation. *Team Leader:: Valerie Sherry *Contact Information: [[Vsherry@umd.edu]] *Milestones: **Write constition and bylaws – register as a university organization **Recruit members from across the university **Recruitment through table and prototyping in Stamp Student Union (3d printed giveaways) **Recruitment through faculty and student leaders in each school/discipline **Recruitment through Design Tent Workshop Weekend **Assemble a Faculty Advisory team, "The Faculty Force" from (varied disciplines) **Arrange permission to use a space or group of spaces for meetings or fabrication **Hold a first meeting **Launch via hack-a-thon or brainstorming session **Second Meeting, Use OpenIDEO program for starting prompts **Write grant(s) for resources **Seek out local partnerships to aid communities **Small victories updates

Tactic #2: Winter Term Interdisciplinary EdxIE Applied Course (Engineering, Design Thinking x Innovation Entrepreneurship)

• This program is meant to spark interest amongst students who may not feel they have the time to “be involved” with entrepreneurship and design thinking during their regular semester. It is also for students wishing to gain a design thinking and entrepreneurial mindset and skillset through applied learning. The structure of the 15 day course would be oriented towards design idea incubation, prototyping or fabrication and pitching your idea to external critics.
• Team Leader: Open Position – Team Leader TBD
• Milestones:
  • Interview participants in programs similar to this at other schools
  • Research Applied Design thinking curriculums & similar programs
  • Reach out to faculty and administration regarding eligibility for “credit” or “certificate” status for the course
  • If course is not eligible for credit, seek funding to support a trial run of the program otherwise create budget for operating cost of the program vs. profit from target participants
  • Develop Curriculum & professional aids
  • Raise awareness among students

Tactic #3: Space Finder/Creater

• Maker spaces should and could be available for ALL students! Think of the invention and spark that could happen if we as students knew physical spaces where we could go to test our new ideas. This program leverages existing resources and spaces and would provide assistance for finding or making physical space for new startups. Students would be able to search through an online platform and mobile app that connects individual students and student groups with available immediate, temporary, short and long-term spaces. The program and task team would have documented a network of spaces on campus and their availability, which could be seen through a map interface on the system. If no space exists, students can contact mDIL (Maryland Design Impact Lab) and request a task team to design a temporary flex-space. This method would thereby provide a need and direction for students looking for innovation space that may not be part of an existing start up, or part of the Engineering or business school. In addition, this service will also give mDIL interdisciplinary design teams the opportunity to practice applying their developing ideation, fabrication and implementation skillsets to address a need.
• Team Leader: Open Position – Team Leader TBD
• Milestones:
  • Reach out to University leaders to form a faculty advisory team for this effort
  • Create strategic plan for implementation
  • Map and categorize existing resources as well as potential physical spaces on campus
  • Tie resource data to website and mobile app interface
  • Raise Awareness among student body about the tool and its inclusivity!
  • Task mDIL with a temporary (flex) innovation space to show potential
  • LAUNCH!

Other

The future is bright for the University of Maryland as a leader in Technology, Entrepreneurship, Design and Innovation. Be a catalyst for this movement and push it forward. Maximize your use of the resources available at your university today and create the resources that it lacks!

For questions, comments or suggestions, please contact at valeriesherry3@gmail.com.

Impact

Related Links

Valerie Sherry

Atin Mittra

University of Maryland College Park