Priorities:University of Oklahoma Student Priorities

Overview

The University of Oklahoma has momentum and a lot of potential when it comes to Innovation and Entrepreneurship on campus. Through mapping all of the resources on campus, it has been determined that there are a few key areas where Unniversity Innovation Fellows and faculty can come together to further advance entrepreneurship on our campus.

Strategy #1: I&E Spaces                                           

Tactic #1: Innovative/Creative Space

• Description- We are hoping that the FabLab will be our Design Space, "Makery", Maker Space, etc., where students can come and design their new ideas. We want this to be our Google Garage, if you will. This fabrication lab will have a 3D printer, all the office supplies imaginable, tinkering spaces, and tools. This fablab will be on the South Research campus, near CCEW, in the new building that is being currently built. Students will either be charged an entrance fee, or it will be free, and then they will be free to use the space and everything in it. There is already the funding for this project and the plans are in the making.
• Team Lead: Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth
• Milestones: Built December 2014
• Open to Public January 2015                                             

Tactic #2: IBM Design                                        

• Description - IBM design is a new and quickly growing 4th major division of IBM. The division currently has about 80 designers and front end developers but is hiring over 2000 new graduates over the next 5 years. The head manager of this new division is an OU alumni and has been extremely interested in a partnership. We believe a partnership with this new division could help is 3 different ways. First, IBM design could sponsor monthly speakers and/or design workshops to get not just designers focused more on design but get people from all majors integrating design thinking into their projects. Second, the big name of IBM will get more students interested in the programs. This will help spread the innovation and design thinking across campus. Finally, this would create an easy path for students from OU to be hired into a major company that is beginning to focus on design and has been known for innovation.
• Team Leaders - Ryan Phillips (Computer Science), Sridhar Radhikrishnan (Dean of CS)
• Milestones -
  • First workshop - August 2014
  • First OU hire by IBM Design - December 2014

Tactic #3: Design for America

• Description: We are hoping to bring Design for America to our campus to increase innovation and entrepreneurship in the design sphere. We are hoping that this will encourage more students in the design and arts and sciences sphere to engage in Entrepreneurship. Design for America will open their applications to more campuses this fall and OU will apply.
• Team Leaders: Lauren Abston, Trisha Murray(Architecture)
• Milestones: Apply for DFA- Fall 2014
• Start Plans on Campus Spring 2015

Tactic #1: Creativity Course

• Description - In our time spent at Stanford, many of the professors described the classes they taught as creativity courses where crazy brainstorming and rapid prototyping is a key portion of the class. At OU, we have very little of this. Almost all classes, even in the visual communications department are focused on traditional lecture classes. One of our main goals is to promote this creative thinking through working with professors to offer a creative thinking course similar to the one Tina Seelig teaches. This initially be something that is just offered to a few students and once the benefits are seen and it is shown that students enjoy using their hands to prototype with playdoh and other materials during class, we will look to expand to offer more classes.
• Team Leaders - Ryan Phillips, Daniel Pullin (Dean of Business College)
• Milestones -
  • First class offered - Fall 2014
  • First Creativity major offered - Fall 2014
  • Other Majors required to take course in creative thinking - Fall 2016

Tactic #2: Learning by Doing Across Majors

• Description - There are few ideas that span every major at a major university, but one that is absolutely true for each is the fact that a student learns more by doing rather than listening. Universities like Stanford have begun to implement this with the d.school being open to all majors, but OU is slow in this area. If we want students to be as well prepared as possible when graduating, we need to get the students doing projects that have a real world impact and allow the students to get a hands on experience. To do this, we can partner with local business and work directly with them to develop projects that a small team of students can work on.
• Team Leaders - Ryan Phillips, Thomas Landers (Dean of Engineering), Cameron McCoy (Executive Director of Corporate Engagement Office)
• Milestones -
  • ​First agreement with company for students to work on project - Fall 2014
  • Integrate into class - Spring 2015

Tactic #3: Presidential Dream Creativity Course

• Description: There are Presidential Dream Courses taught at OU that bring together professors and speakers from all different disciplines. They are a series of lectures taught by accredited and renowned leaders from their fields. The Dream Courses range from science to the existence of God, from music to ancient Roman history. We are hoping to host a Presidential Dream Course on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. We are hoping this will have three main effects. First, this will bring important leaders in creativity(like Tina Seelig) to the OU campus and they will see the infrastructure we already have in place. Secondly, this course will be open to all students and will bring in some that may have not thought they had an interest in entrepreneurship. Third, it will prove to the university and the University President the demand for entrepreneurship and creativity on our campus. This is my top priority and something that will cause lasting change on campus, and is unique to our campus landscape. 
• Team Leads: Lauren Abston, Ryan Phillips, CCEW
• Milestones- Spring 2014- Have Course

Random Strategy: Start-Up Career Fair

We only have normal career fairs with big energy companies. It would be awesome to spur interest for entrepreneurship by bringing in start-up companies that were looking to hire recent college grads. We haven't looked into this as much, but even having a few start-up companies at our normal career fair would help a lot. 

Related Links

Lauren Abston

Ryan Phillips

University of Oklahoma