Changes

At the University of Wisconsin, - Milwaukee, we have what is known as the “Innovation Engine” this is the sum of the widespread opportunities for students to get involved in academic research, pursue business ideas, participate in entrepreneurial courses, enter business competitions, or simply get involved with an innovative student organization. This Innovation Engine is the ambitious goal of our campus Leadership who are creating an Innovation Campus and building new spaces for interdisciplinary collaborative research with many partners in the Milwaukee area. When looking at our landscape canvas, it seems that there are a great deal of opportunities that currently exist for students. However, in the past weeks to months, we have been able to really take a pulse of the campus and examine whether the students are really being engaged. This seems to be the case for a few, but far more students do not know about the resources available to them, and far more students do not execute their ideas. There is a sense of close-mindedness, fear, and a perceived lack of support that needs to be addressed. Students need to be excited and given a chance to truly let their creative juices and passions pour into an idea free of judgement, where they can take on the risks and pursue new opportunities. We want students to dare to be different and think not about simply getting a job, but creating a job. We need to ignite a new, fresh, more exciting and exhilarating innovation engine that does not focus exclusively on the academic research but also in the personal pursuits of students. We need to inspire students and make them believe that they too can change the world. For these reasons, the following six strategies are designed to maximize the hidden potential that lies within the student body and the faculty and administrators who teach students each and everyday. The resources on campus are there but they need to be reorganized and they need to be given a context, for those who are outside the compartmentalized and easily-isolated groups and colleges. There are 14 schools and colleges at UWM, with nearly 30,000 students and over 1,600 faculty, so it is easy for resources and programs to get lost in the shuffle. As a result of the scale of UWM, our current I&E ecosystem is quite fragmentd, with no clear pathways for progress. These six strategies aim to solve many of these problems that plague the campus and ultimately deter some students from pursuing their ideas. Our goal is that with these strategies in place, our university can have a centralized I&E ecosystem that has a low barrier to entry, easily-identifiable and transparent pathways for resource-sharing, and the ability to cultivate, nurture and expose ideas. We want to reward students for their participation in the I&E ecosystem and we want other students to feel like they want to be a part of the I&E ecosystem.