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== <span style="font-size:larger;">'''Project Pitch Videos''' </span> ==

== <span style="font-size:larger;">'''Strategy 1: Alter Campus Culture by gaining more student involvementGaining More Student Involvement'''&nbsp;</span> ==

== <span style="font-size:larger;">'''Strategy 2: Increasing First Year Student Retention''' </span> ==

<span style="font-size:small;">'''Project Lead: Mohamed Moustafa'''</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">One of the main problems facing first-year students is uncertainty choosing a field of study or a major to pursue, this applies directly to undecided students but also impacts a great population of freshman students who are decided yet dubious. Through our journey as UIF candidates, we had the opportunity to interview freshman students and we found that they are mostly unaware of the wide range of university major offerings. Making students more aware of majors available and career opportunities in each field can make them more likely to commit to finishing their degree and counteract 'first-year drop off'. Another very useful strategy for freshman retention that we uncovered through our discussion with several faculty and staff leaders is student-faculty engagement outside of class. Increasing this engagement helps create a home-away-from-home feeling for students which increases their attachment to the university and improves their academic performance, hence increasing retention. Following these discoveries, we developed two initiatives that focus on increasing student-faculty collisions and students' awareness of university offerings.</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">'''Initiative #1: Engaging Faculty in Freshman Student Orientation'''</span>

*<span style="font-size:small;">Invite introductory course faculty to attend lunch & dinner with students during orientation (Pilot program)</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Include faculty as participants in team building and ice-breaker events</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Run faculty & student focus groups pertaining to engagement</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Add mini-intros to different fields of study throughout orientation</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Include activity introducing WSU major offerings/resources to orientation</span>

'''Initiative #2*<span style="font-size: small;">Organize a fair as part of Welcome Week Majors Fair'''Fest</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Departments host tables and promote their available majors & minors</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Faculty interact with students and answer questions</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Invite alumni to represent departments and talk about their beyond school experience</span>

<span style== "font-size:small;">'''Strategy 3Project Lead: Alter the Campus Culture through CurriculumKelsey Hanna''' ==</span>

'''Project Lead<span style="font-size: Kelsey Hanna'''small;">Tactic #1: Design thinking pop up classes.&nbsp;</span>

Tactic #1<span style="font-size: Design small;">Pop-Up series classes offered across majors and disciplines led by UIF members to teach design thinking pop up classesconcepts to both student and faculty with the ultimate goal of having design thinking concepts integrated across campus. This would bolster the campus innovation and entrepreneurial mindsight while simultaneously allowing a new approach to education that is both exciting and useful in industry positions.&nbsp;</span>

Pop<span style="font-Up series classes offered across majors and disciplines led by UIF members to teach design thinking concepts to both student and faculty with the ultimate goal of having design thinking concepts integrated across campus. This would bolster the campus innovation and entrepreneurial mindsight while simultaneously allowing a new approach to education that is both exciting and useful in industry positions.&nbspsize:small;">'''Project Lead: Kevin Kraus'''</span>

'''Project Lead<span style="font-size: Kevin Kraus'''small;">Tactic #1: Introduce students to design courses early on.</span>

Tactic #1<span style="font-size: Introduce small;">Selected Topics in Design is an aerospace engineering course that offers sophomore and junior honors students the opportunity to work side-by-side with the aerospace engineering students enrolled in their senior design course. &nbsp;Creating parallel courses early in the other engineering departments would help form a foundation in design earlier onin a student’s academic career.</span>

Selected Topics in Design is an aerospace engineering course that offers sophomore and junior honors students the opportunity *<span style="font-size:small;">Speak with </span><span style="font-size:small;">faculty</span><span style="font-size:small;">of senior design courses to work sidegauge </span><span style="font-bysize:small;">feasibility</span><span style="font-side with size:small;">&nbsp;</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Discuss the aerospace engineering students enrolled in their senior design course. option of these courses fulfilling Engineer of 2020 requirement&nbsp;</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Create </span><span style="font-size:small;">first</span><span style="font-size:small;">revision of curriculum&nbsp;Creating parallel </span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Begin offering these courses in the other engineering departments would help form a foundation in design earlier on in a student’s academic career.</span>

*Speak with faculty of senior design courses to gauge feasibility&nbsp<span style="font-size:small;*Discuss the option of these courses fulfilling Engineer of 2020 requirement&nbsp;*Create first revision of curriculum&nbsp;*Begin offering these courses"><br/></span>

Tactic #2*<span style="font-size: Offer interdisciplinary design courses. Interdisciplinary work allows students the opportunity to gain new perspectives on how their majors interact with other majors in the business world. &nbsp;A design course that involved business and engineering majors and emphasized product lifecycle management would expose the students to different mindsets and a more holistic understanding of how an idea or solution is created out of an initial design and eventually marketed. &nbspsmall;This course could also facilitate community business partners that offer real-world problems for the students to undertake as their design project. *">Find a faculty member interested in teaching the course</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Determine if this course could satisfy senior design requirements</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Identify community businesses interested in a partnership</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Create </span><span style="font-size:small;">first </span><span style="font-size:small;">revision of curriculum</span>*<span style="font-size:small;">Begin offering the course</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">'''Project Lead: Michael Schlesinger, Caylin Wiley, Jesus Gomez, and LaRissa Lawrie'''</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">Tactic #3:&nbsp;<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15.36px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rethinking Senior Design Courses</span></span>

*<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15.36px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interdisciplinary Senior Design Teams:</span></span>

<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15.36px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through our stakeholder meeting, we have understood that some departments won't give up their requirements when dealing with Senior Design, especially the engineering departments. However, we talked about the possibility of creating independent teams in different colleges when students start their senior year or project. Then, the goal was to create a link or collaboration between those groups and develop a company model between them. For example, we talked about the possibility about creating a group of aerospace engineers who will be in charge of the airplane design, electrical engineers about the circuits required, mechanical engineers dealing with engines, business to create a business model or marketing to investigate if there will be a profit, art and communication majors to create the brand, visual design, and publicity. The combinations are limitless.</span></span>

*<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="line-height: 15.36px; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Involving Employers</span></span>

<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Many students strive to network with employers early on in their college careers. However, lack of opportunities often leaves students wanting more interactions than they get. One way we can change this is by allowing students the opportunity to involve employers in their senior design project. While some colleges already incorporate this idea, it is limited to specific colleges and few employers. Connecting employers with students to provide benefits to both sides. Students have the chance to obtain real-world experience with employers and the problems they face. Employers then have the opportunity to utilize a senior design team to help them resolve an issue within their company. Allowing students and employers to work side by side in senior design projects would help prepare students for their future.&nbsp;</span></span></span>

*<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Workshops to help Senior Design students</span></span>

<span style="font-size:small;">Some students have the drive to turn their senior design projects into something more. The students we interviewed were looking for resources on how to take a research project and turn it into a viable business or patentable product. The first step to accomplishing this and changing curriculum is to empower students. Part of this tactic is giving students the equivalent of a pop class workshop on senior design classes. Talks are occurring with the research institutes on campus about funding and structural support. The workshops will be designed to take students through the stages of design thinking and prepare students with the lean startup model. The current plan is to hold the workshops three times a semester.&nbsp;</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">'''Overview:'''</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">As one of the leading contributors to the Tech Transfer and Research Development schools in the State of Kansas, it is important for Wichita State University to continue to push for new methods of encouraging students and to provide opportunities to broaden their intellectual development. By setting in place initiatives that would help facilitate more innovative business models, students could then begin to explore the potentials of their academic course material and truly begin understanding the implications of their education.&nbsp;</span>

<span style="font-size:small;">It is through the social interactions between student to student contributors, faculty to student advisement, and business to student relationships that as a Univesity the cultural development will shift from faculty-driven research and development to that of the entire University body working in cotangent towards a more dynamic experience.&nbsp;</span>