Priorities:Saint Louis University Priorities
Overview
Saint Louis University has an emerging I&E mindset on campus. Currently, there are many small groups of students whom pursue I&E on campus but there is a lack as an campus overall.
The projects outlined below will help improve I&E on campus.</span>
2017 Project
Webpage for Adminitrative Requests and Communication
Hands on Career Specific "Classroom" Experiences
Free Bike Access For Students
2016 Project
Project Pitch Video
Strategies
U101 Design Thinking Workshop Implementation
At Saint Louis University we have a first year class called U101 that is open for all students of all majors to take their first semester here at college. The class covers many different topics that relate to what resources the campus has to offer. With the resources available to students it would be beneficial for freshman to learn about the spaces we have for innovation and entrepreneurship here on campus. Because this class is open to all majors, interdisciplinary innovation can be harbored here and can carry across campus. A few steps that need to be taken to get this program off the ground include:
- Bringing the administrators in on the idea
- Writing a new curriculum
- Getting the curriculum approved
- Getting feedback from students based on what they have learned and their willingness to use the resources provided
Expanding Makerspaces in the Library and Student Center
At Saint Louis University we believe that the most important issue is the lack of maker space at high intense places where students work and study. Every student wishes to write on walls, use blackboards and an innovative place for that student would help him/her make a change at that particular university
When we approached our university we with this idea we thought that they were satisfied with the system they have at the moment but after having a talk with them, They had the same plan but could not dream of executing it properly without student support as they really wanted to know what we want as students in our maker place.
We learned:
- They were planning to expand a portion for learning communities
- Learning communities could use our concept
- They have the funds to organise all the help we want
Our plan to accomplish this target has 8 targets :
Within 5 weeks
- Propose this plan to professors to ask them about this plan
- Propose it to our aluminis who would give a good amount of feedback through their experiences
- Encourage students to propose ideas to ask them how they feel about our project
- Research about institutes who have already worked on this and what were the difficulties they felt
Within 5 months - In Fall 2016
- Make a prototype and experiment it and see the reviews we get after that
After 6 months of experimentation- In Summer 2016-2017
- Make changes as per required and build our final design at the library and BSC
Every year - After Fall 2017
- Innovate the place with the help of graduate and undergraduate students as per the ideas they have for us
After 2 years of successfully holding it- After - Fall 2019
- Possibly try holding classes to at the same place
Expanding Horizons for the Weekly Innovation Challenge
Every Wednesday,Saint Louis University students have a chance to compete in the Weekly Innovation Challenge at Parks College of Enigneering. Students come together to form teams from different majors/disciplines. The students are then given an impromptu challenge and have one hour to compete.
The last few semesters, there has been a decrease in the number of participants and decrease in the different majors/disciplines.
The project idea is to increase the number of participants during the challenge to increase the entreprenurial mindset around SLU and its community.
There are 3 main challenges:
1. I&E at SLU is not widespread across the campus, but rather in small chunks.
2. Not enough awareness about I&E is being generated because I&E is not understood properly.
3. Particiaption is the biggest challenege.
Next we will work to get the ball rolling on erasing the entrepreneurial stereotype and instead creating awareness and educating students and faculty on what I&E really is.
What we’ll do in the next…
5 days: Meet with other Colleges to introduce the idea of innovation and entrepreneurship
5 weeks: Plan out specifics like time, date, location, the activities involved, volunteers, etc.
5 months: Host the weekly innovation challenge for the whole University and if it is successful, we will hope to have it multiple times during the 5 months
SLU iDea Competition Day
The project I am proposing for the UIF program is to develop an annual idea competition day, called “SLU iDea Competition Day”. The program will be held in one day where students from across campus (including our medical campus) will come to pitch either a new or existing idea that they think can solve a problem in our daily lives. The problem scope can be worldwide as well as local to someone’s daily life. This program would be ran at the university level where the university’s administrators and faculties will be encouraged to participate in promoting the event to their students. The top ten ideas will be chosen at the end of the competition and rewarded with monetary prizes to encourage the students to pursue it or keep on innovating until they can find the best idea that they like to work with. This will provide a huge motivate to students from different discipline to think creatively and at the same incorporating the entrepreneurial mindset into their thought process. Given the program will be success, the school will also benefit from its outcomes by having a good reputation and potentially attract more prospective students in the long run.
Related Links
Saint Louis University Student Priorities
University Innovation Fellows
