Changes

As the Spring 2016 UIF leadership circle for Tennessee Technological University, we hope to increase and expand innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets across campus. In 5 to 10 years we want to come back to see engineers working with artists, chemists creating alongside social scientists, and business professionals collaborating with human ecologists. We hope to see greater and stronger student-faculty relationships, students pursuing their innovative ideas from day 1 of freshman year, and a greater use of campus and regional resources to help students and faculty bring their ambitions to life. Above all, we hope to see innovative thinking become the standard, not the exception.

<span style="font-size: small;">With the addition of the iCube and iMakerspace to Tennessee Technological University's campus, a key resource for innovation and entrepreneurship is available for all students to utilize. The iCube hosts a virtual reality lab, brainstorming area and classroom, and an iMakerspace loaded with machines like 3-D printers and lab space.&nbsp;Currently, the space is primarily used by engineering students, as well as a small proportion of business students. To introduce students of all majors to entrepreneurship and innovation both on campus and within this new resource, specialized pop-ups should be held which represent the interests of various underrepresented majors in the iCube. For example, a pop-up class which showed wildlife and fisheries students how to 3-D print fish hooks would bring students of other majors into the space and increase exposure to interdisciplinary work with engineering students. Specialized pop-up classes will be open to all students, increasing the likelihood of involving more majors in the iCube and iMakerspace.&nbsp;</span>

<span style="font-size: small;">Everyone has a need for innovation in their degree, and these specialized pop-ups are a way to introduce more students to invaluable resources on campus.</span>

<span style="font-size: small;">Research completed regarding the I&E ecosystem at Tennessee Technological University uncovered a large base of I&E-capable student organizations (40+) with an overwhelming lack of courses either based on or integrating I&E principles into the curriculum (~9 + Senior capstone projects). Courses containing these concepts are clustered within the engineering and business disciplines, with few outliers among other majors such as agriculture and nursing.</span>

<span style="font-size: small;">One such course, involving students from nursing and chemical engineering (open to biomolecular concentration as well as general chemical engineering students), is called [https://www.tntech.edu/news/releases/nursing,-engineering-students-collaborate-on-health-care-problems Clinical Immersion at Disciplinary Interfaces] and was piloted during the Fall 2015 Semester. This course teaches students to apply field experience/observation and personal interviews to a process very similar to the design thinking process called the [http://eecs.vanderbilt.edu/courses/ee235/STAR_Legacy_model.htm Legacy Cycle]. Students then use this creative process to generate innovative solutions to problems noted during clinical experiences in the hospital and/or identified by health care workers (mostly staff nurses). One solution presented at the end of the course included plans and theoretical proof of concept for a non-lead [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O6338JsdW6i947bSGWkvvVF9RupCshBwd_pyG-UXELo/edit?usp=sharing radiation-shielding sterile drape] which would be reusable, sterilizable, light-weight, and flexible.</span>

<span style="font-size: small;">Though Clinical Immersion at Disciplinary Interfaces is an interdisciplinary course focused on a process similar to design thinking, there are a few improvements which would make the experience more effective:</span>

#<span style="font-size: small;">'''Greater introduction to available resources''': While a brief introduction to the resources available for prototyping on campus was provided (specifically, the iMakerspace within the iCube), no in-depth instruction occurred on the use of these resources due to time constraints for the students of Fall 2015.</span>

<span style="font-size: small;">In order to remedy the areas for improvement outlined above, a long-term 3 year program has been proposed for participation of students from every major offered through Tech (not all will be represented, but all will be eligible). This program will offer extensive exposure to I&E concepts and interdisciplinary collaboration while promoting the use of available resources for student innovative and entrepreneurial ventures. Divided into yearly cohorts, the program will give students the opportunity to form long-term interdisciplinary relationships for collaboration in solution development to problems found in the surrounding area and/or on mission trips to more distant locations.</span>

#<span style="font-size: small;">'''Third year cohorts will self-identify problems and develop design solutions with the end goal of achieving student licensure of the product, venture start-up status, and/or commercialization of the product by an outside entity'''. As the capstone of the program, this project will challenge students to work together effectively while pooling knowledge not only from the previous two years in the program, but also knowledge gained within each student's respective discipline.</span>

#<span style="font-size: small;">'''iCube partnership (Spring 2016)''': In order to establish increased program credibility, developing a close partnership with the directors and administrators of the iCube is essential to gaining the support of individual college deans and department heads. Partnership with the iCube also provides the program with a home-base and increased access to resources required for prototyping and design development.</span>

#<span style="font-size: small;">'''Spark interest early''': Targeting students during freshman year is a tactic universities deploy across the country to increase student discovery of I&E and promote its continued pursuit. If we can teach students to look for the I&E opportunities around them in their UNIV 1010 Freshman Connections course (see Strategic Priority #3) the proposed program will provide a guided opportunity to pursue these ideas long-term.</span>

Through our investigation of the I&E ecosystem on our campus, a dichotomy began to emerge in which I saw a divergence between those who viewed the design thinking process as valuable in itself and those who viewed&nbsp;it as a means to developing technology. Tennessee Tech has done an admirable job &nbsp;building out the infrastructure which could support creating technology or a company, but has room to grow in terms of developing an I&E culture.