Priorities:University of California Merced Student Priorities
Contents
Overview
The University of California, Merced has an unprecedented opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation in California's Central Valley. As most of the campus has yet to be built, UC Merced has the physical space necessary to facilitate a variety of programs in the interest of progressing entrepreneurial spirit on campus, whether that be new research centers, maker spaces, or incubators. Whatever the future holds, the newest University of California campus already hosts forward-thinking programs to encourage its own environmental sustainability and the surrounding region's economic development. UC Merced's faculty and administration actively enact participate in various strategies in pursuit of these goals, including the Pathways to Innovation program, and its dedication to environmental sustainability in ensuring its buildings are LEED certified. UC Merced’s Leadership Circle has determined the following strategies to be top priorities for growth of UC Merced's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the future.
Strategies
ESL Curriculum/Innovate to Grow
The Foster Family Center for Engineering Service Learning program (ESL) currently hosts skills sessions that mostly support engineering students, e.g. CAD, Content Managment Systems, etc. What can be attained in the near future is the integration of entrepreneurial skills sessions that would allow the mostly engineering participants within ESL to gain skills that they wouldn't otherwise attain in their other coursework, for example:
- Project Management
- Rapid Prototyping and Brainstorming techniques
- Pitch Development
- Intellectual Property
- Business Plan
- Organizational Strategy
This additional coursework can be constructed through coordination with professors from UC Merced's Management Program. The professors with the most background in the entrepreneurship field are Dr. S.A. Davis and Dr. Theofanis Tsoulouhas. With their support, entrepreneurial skills sessions can be successfully created and implemented within two semesters, pending administrative approval. The Director of ESL, Christopher Butler, has already expressed his support for incorporating new sessions, after a concreate plan has been developed. Eventually, these skills sessions can be used to supplement the Innovate to Grow design competition, which overall encompasses not only ESL, but also the Innovation Design Clinic (Capstone), and the Mobile App Challenge. Students would have the option to attend these skills sessions which would aid their pitches during the competition, but more importantly, would supplement their overall skills within their tenure at UC Merced.
Maker Space
The UC Merced leadership circle has three ideas to create a maker space, which may modify existing resources or introduce a need for new facilities:
- Betaversity Beta Box
- Modify existing ESL Lab or unused space
- Integrate maker space into new building
Betaversity Beta Box
Betaversity has already worked with a UC Merced sister school, UC Davis. It has set precedent for working with the University of California system, and more beneficially, can provide a Beta Box. Beta Boxes are storage containers that have been modified to be self-contained maker labs in themselves. A Beta Box creates several solutions for bringing a maker space to UC Merced.
