What do you wish you could have learned when you were in college? Practitioners, educators, students, and all other stakeholders in the Portland design community are invited to participate in a collaborate workshop helping the Innovation Task Force at the University of Portland apply tenets of design thinking to develop the structure, content, and mission of a newly proposed cross-disciplinary Innovation Minor.
This minor intends to provide a platform for collaboration and learning for students across the UP campus—Engineering, Business, Nursing, Education, and Arts & Sciences– to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, and experiences to become innovators in areas of interest related to their individual academic and professional goals. The minor is to be built upon a foundation of Design Thinking; Empathy, human-centered design and observational research, prototyping, and innovative problem solving, however, the exact form and content of the program remains undefined.
Your experiences and expertise are requested to help the Task Force design the best possible program: What do students need to know? What classes should be offered? How should the courses be structured? What should be the class sequence? How flexible/ proscriptive should the program be? How do you bring students from diverse backgrounds together to learn the mindset, skill set, and toolsets associated with design and innovation? What types of problems and projects should the students address? How can the program benefit from the unique capabilities and resources in the Portland area?
Workshop participants will be provided a brief introduction to the background and context of the proposed Innovation Minor before breaking into small groups to use design thinking and visual learning techniques to explore possibilities of what a user-centered Innovation Minor program could be and define the content and structure of a program that benefits the end user (the students).
Design Week Portland: Thursday April 27 3pm-5pm A few seats are still available.
Please register at:
https://www.designweekportland.com/events/designing-a-new-innovation-minor-at-the-university-of-portland