Overview

Fall 2017

Spring 2016

Utah Valley University is a teaching institution with a unique focus on "engaged learning," or the combination of traditional academic and hands-on education. This mode of teaching goes back to UVU's roots as a vocational school at its inception during World War II and persists today across the institution's full array of university-level programs. Utah Valley University is a school with a rich history of innovation and entrepreneurship. UVU students are passionate about solving the world’s complex problems.

Utah Valley University’s Business Resource Center offers a wide variety of resources for entrepreneurs including: Business Counselors, Accelerator Programs, New Product Development Training, Prototyping, Tech Commercialization, Government Grants, Tech Transfer, The Vivint SMARTLab, and more. This great abundance of resources drives many student entrepreneurs to utilize the Business Resource Center each year. But how does UVU reach the rest of the students on campus? How can UVU teach students to generate new ideas? How can UVU drive more traffic to the Business Resource Center?

It is imperative that we engage students in a hands-on learning experience that allows them to identify and solve the problems the world is facing. We must provide students with a cross-disciplinary collaborative environment where they can generate and test new ideas. Our goal is to teach all students about Design Thinking: A human-centered approach to creative problem solving. This knowledge will make students a versatile tool as they enter the workforce. Regardless of major, job, or industry, this knowledge will teach students to solve the unknown problems of tomorrow.

Strategic Priorities

Create an Innovation & Design Thinking Lab on Campus

-Work with Technology Management Capstone Class and Leadership Circle to create presentation on ‘Why UVU needs a makerspace on Campus. (03/2015)

-Apply for 10 offices located in the breezeway between the Losee Center and the Computer Science Building for the makerspace. Work with Deans of Technology & Computing, and Woodbury Business to determine if there are other locations that would be a better fit for our vision. (04/2015)

-Meet with administration and pitch the importance of having a makerspace on campus. (03/2015) Tanner Wheadon has done this. Administration is open to the idea, but a campus-wide lack of space has made progress difficult. The university is planning to build a new building for the College of Engineering and Technology, and Brayden Cutler has been pushing for makers space to be included in the building design. He has found some initial success in his efforts and has enlisted the help of the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 cohorts to help continue the push.

-Assess needs and budget based on the location and current state of the makerspace. (04/2015)

-Secure funds for the makerspace and all supplies. (04/2015)

Utilize Innovation & Design Thinking Lab

-Meet with faculty from Tech & Computing, Woodbury School of Business, Entrepreneurship Institute, and Business Resource Center to refine and improve Innovation and Design Thinking Curriculum.

-Create a 2-week Innovation & Design Thinking course model.

-After curriculum has been approved, meet again with campus leaders to determine which courses will utilize the Innovation & Design Thinking Lab. What course, what time, how many weeks of the semester, etc.

-Establish "Open Lab" hours and "Class Time" schedule to make Lab available for all students.

-Hold monthly Design Thinking Workshops that are open to students and the community.

-Set up referral system with Business Resource Center. The Design Thinking lab will refer students who are ready to validate their ideas to the BRC. And the BRC will refer clients who still need to refine their ideas to the Innovation & Design Thinking Lab.

General Ed & Capstone Integration

-Refine Tech 1010 (popular general ed course) curriculum to include students spending two weeks in the Innovation & Design Thinking Lab to learn about the Design Thinking Process. The reason Tech 1010 would be a great opportunity is because a large amount of students from a wide variety of disciplines take the class. This would create diversity and promote innovative and unique ideas.

-There is a large gap between the amount of Capstone students and the amount of projects available. The first two weeks of the Senior Capstone class could be spent in the Innovation & Design Thinking Lab brainstorming ideas for potential Senior Capstone Projects.

-Speak at the Utah Business and Marketing Education Summer Conference to explain the impact of Design Thinking Curriculum on the Undergraduate Experience.

-Create a design thinking course for students major and as a general course, so that there will be more innovation in the mind of all students.

Partner with the UVU Foundation to expand the Wolverine Fund

-Collaborate with student Matthew Bryson regarding WF events, such as the 2018 ribbon cutting, and involve fellows from all available cohorts.

UIF Fellows and Candidates were in attendance at the ribbon cutting. The Fall 2017 cohort is currently working on getting UIF Fellows and Candidates enrolled in the Wolverine Fund class.

-Act as a funnel between excellent student ideas, and the available resources of the fund.

-Integrate UIF students with the Wolverine Fund structure format.

The Fall 2017 cohort has also considered attempting pushing for a UIF Faculty champion to be on the Wolverine Fund Board.

-Create a Wolverine Fund Website.

This has been accomplished.

(January 2018)

Facilitate Greater Collaboration Across Departments

-Finish prototyping the Innovation Incubator Event Series. This includes the event design, the ideal place and time to hold the event, the event frequency, and the optimal amount of student involvement (March 2018) (Nick Varney).

-Leverage networks of professors and department heads to identify "lone wolf innovators" and personally invite them to attend the series. The success of the event depends upon getting the right people to attend (March 2018) (Nick Varney).

-Create digital and print advertisements for the event series (March 2018) (Tim Smith).

-Work with administration to promote event series through campus digital signage. Digital advertisements on campus are not the most effective way to promote events, but they will hopefully intrigue a couple of professors we otherwise would have missed (March 2018) (Tim Smith).

-Establish a social-media marketing strategy for the event (April 2018) (Nick Varney).

-Take pictures and record videos of the events. We will use these pictures and videos to augment our social media advertisements (April 2018) (Nick Varney).

Create a Website that will compound all the resources available for I&E

-Increase awareness about the resources available for Innovation and Entrepreneurship through a Website (Wendy - September 2018)

-Introduce the website to Faculty and Students (Wendy - September 2018)

-Promote the use of the website through the discover passport activity (Wendy - September 2018)

-Promote the use of resources through class assignments (Wendy - September 2018)

-Provide a 5 to 10 minutes training about how to use the website to learn about the resources (Wendy -September 2018)

-Include videos, about the use of the resources, on the website to make it more interactive and attractive (Wendy -September 2018- January 2019)

- Create ready to use lesson plans for professors to implement in their courses, that includes engaging with a resource (Khaliun - July 2018)

- Create engaging 'Escape Room'-style resource discovery/adventure guides for I&E resources. (Khaliun- July 2018)

- Create a Discover Passport for students to mark discovered resources (Khaliun - July 2018)

Map out all current makerspaces at UVU:

Discover and record all of the makerspaces at UVU, and present this record in an easily understandable matter.

CB - April 2018
FL - April 2018
LA - April 2018
EC - May 2018
SB - May 2018
RL - May/June 2018
SL - June 2018
SC - June 2018
PS - July 2018
BA - July 2018
WB - July 2018
LC - August 2018
SA - August 2018
GT - September 2018
FA - September 2018
NC - November 2018
CS - November 2018

Priorities:Utah Valley University Student Priorities

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