Inventioneering Proposal

Kris Guiang, Rita Leonova, Shaughn McCormick, Jesse Weiss

Mission Statement

The Inventor’s Workshop is an innovative program that fosters students to pursue their ideas, innovations, and interests as part of their core college curriculum. Inventor’s Workshop represents a paradigm shift in university education, as it breaks down the barriers between education and research. Inventor’s Workshop attracts creative, motivated students of all interests and challenges them to collaborate in teams. The interdisciplinary nature of the Inventor’s Workshop transcends boundaries between curricula, allowing cooperation between disciplines to foster innovation and discovery. The Inventor’s Workshop seeks to “fast track” students to innovative success by replacing nonspecific introductory courses with challenging courses that induct the student Inventioneer into the program.

Outcomes Arizona State University is at the frontier of innovation advancement, new venture

creation, and social entrepreneurship.The university and student benefits of the Inventor’s Workshop align perfectly with the eight goals of Michael Crow’s New American University.  Inventor’s Workshop students, or “Inventioneers,” engage in use-inspired research projects that align student interest with socioeconomic need.  Specialized coursework, research programs, and academic advising enable student success by fostering the pursuit of unique individual passion.  The Inventor’s Workshop is built on the principle of interdisciplinary collaboration, allowing students to fuse intellectual disciplines.

The Inventor’s Workshop will help fulfill the New American University initiative by valuing entrepreneurship and catalyzing the fulfillment of social needs to transform society.  Cross-departmental collaboration maximizes the diverse resources available across the university, leveraging university resources.  The Inventor’s Workshop will utilize local partnerships sustaining university focus on being socially embedded with the surrounding community.  In the long term, the workshop aspires to engage globally with the worldwide application of Inventioneering ideas and innovations.1

Benefits Pursuing a degree or certificate in Inventioneering  will give students access to a new

kind of higher level education that truly seeks to foster innovation. If the inventors workshop functions as intended, students should be able to both create and explore multiple courses, modules, and learning tools from a wide variety of academic and technical disciplines. Due to the exploratory and open source format of this program, students will have access to an expanding library of learning tools that will provide much more variety than what is currently offered through university coursework.  The requirements set forth in the program also seek to link an Inventioneer’s module and coursework selection together into a marketable set of job skills.

The inventors workshop will also create the potential for rapid course development. As the program continues to improve and grow, cutting edge modules can be created and shared much faster than a traditional course can be designed and implemented in the current university system.  

Early exposure to DIY tools and hackerspaces will be one of the greatest benefits of this program by providing Inventioneers with an understanding of the tools and resources available to them.

Benefits

The Inventioneer certificate, minor, and major will each provide unique benefits to students as well. The certificate will enhance the value of any degree by tailoring it to a student’s true interests and career goals. An Inventioneering minor will take this enhancement a step further by encouraging students to engage with level 3 spaces, and by exposing them to senior level prototypes created by students who are majoring in Inventioneering. Receiving a degree from the inventors workshop will be the pinnacle of hands on learning. It will give students the opportunity to engage in the design process from start to finish, provide mentorship to new Inventioneering students, and gain real world experience in the field or industry for which they have tailored their degree

Benefits Chart

Certificate Minor Major

Technology Familiarization with Level 1 and 2 spaces with hands on training in lab based on tract.

Guidance in a Level 3 space plus experience from research assistance.

Work in a Level 3 space to complete final project.

Design Familiarization with the design process and knowledge of available resources.

Analysis of what knowledge is necessary to reach invention goal and filling in these knowledge gaps. Basic attempt at prototyping.

Prototyping invention and producing optimizing it.

Mentorship Work with a professor/organization/inventioneering upper classman.

Work with an inventioneering upper class man plus partnership with Level 3 space.

Internship with a company in your field.

Structure

The Inventor’s Workshop is divided into three different concentrations:Engineering, Math, Technology & Physical

SciencesFine Arts/Humanities/DesignBusiness

Structure

These three tracts determine the technical electives a student will concentrate on in their upper division coursework and will also define the schools through which their lower division prerequisites must be taken.

Certain core classes will be shared between all degree concentrations for all IW majors, some minors, and certificates. Students may challenge prerequisites for upper division coursework for minors and certificates and will be evaluated by IW faculty before seeking instructor approval.

The Inventor’s Workshop consists of three different certification levels:  certificate, minor, and major.  The degrees require:

Click to see major map PDF

Computer Modeling Electives

MAE 214 (SolidWorks) MAE 323 (Ansi) BME 294 (MatLab, MathCAD) ANP 494 (IBIM-ArchiCAD) ANP 494 (3D Revit) ANP 494 (2D Graphics: AutoCAD) THP 494 (AutoCAD 3D) THP 598 (AutoCAD for Live Entertainment)

*For full list of electives see proposal document

Evaluation

Evaluation in the Inventor’s Workshop will be end-product based.  The design-oriented studios will include evaluation of individual work based on preset project guidelines.  Failure is encouraged in the Inventor’s Workshop; project failure is accompanied by a written report as to how and why the project failed.  From there, the project failure is recorded in the student’s portfolio, which will be reflected upon as experience gained rather than a task failed.

The Inventioneering major will require a capstone, or a final thesis-type project, that is overseen by three mentors:  one faculty member in charge of the capstone project and two outside mentors of the student’s choice.  The capstone will be pertinent to the individual’s Inventioneering concentration:  engineering and physical sciences, liberal arts, or business.  Studios IV, V, and VI will be relevent to this final evaluation. Transdisciplinary collaboration is highly encouraged.