Innovation for Changemakers: Design for a Disrupted World
GCC 3005: Innovation for Changemakers in a Disrupted World
Do you want to make a difference? We live in a world full of complex challenges, such as COVID-19, racism, economic recession, and environmental collapse, to name a few. Now is the time to use your own skills and passion to make a positive impact in the world.
In this project-based course, you will learn how to develop effective and sustainable responses to current social and environmental problems. You'll study a variety of tools, mindsets, and skills that will help you to address any complex grand challenge, as well as engage with case studies of successful grand challenge projects in the past. Your project may address food insecurity, unemployment, housing, environmental impacts, equity, or other issues. Proposed designs for how you might have an impact may take many forms- such as a student group, program intervention with an existing organization, public policy strategy, or for-profit or non-profit venture. but this class will focus on how to make ideas financially sustainable.
The primary focus of this (GCC 3005) course is how to identify an appropriate challenge to address. You will use a discovery process, design thinking, and input from field research to develop the scope and scale of the challenge you choose. You will build a model for your idea around input from primary and secondary research, as well as the affected community’s culture, needs, and wants.
Community members, locally and globally, may serve as mentors and research consultants to teams. External speakers will be brought in to share their stories to serve the common good. Students enrolled will work in interdisciplinary teams of 4-5 on projects developed within the class.
This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to second year undergraduate students and above and graduate students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 5005: Innovation for Changemakers in a Disrupted World
Do you want to make a difference? We live in a world full of complex challenges, such as COVID-19, racism, economic recession, and environmental collapse, to name a few. Now is the time to use your own skills and passion to make a positive impact in the world.
In this project-based course, you will learn how to develop effective and sustainable responses to current social and environmental problems. You'll study a variety of tools, mindsets, and skills that will help you to address any complex grand challenge, as well as engage with case studies of successful grand challenge projects in the past. Your project may address food insecurity, unemployment, housing, environmental impacts, equity, or other issues. Proposed designs for how you might have an impact may take many forms (student group, program intervention with an existing organization, public policy strategy, or for-profit or non-profit venture) but this class will focus on how to make ideas financially sustainable.
The primary focus of this (GCC 5005) course is how to develop a pilot project plan that addresses a grand challenge. You will learn business modeling, financial projections, and pitching to potential investors and funders. You will build a model for your idea around input from primary and secondary research, as well as the affected community’s culture, needs, and wants.
Community members, locally and globally, may serve as mentors and research consultants to teams. External speakers will be brought in to share their stories of how to build and scale innovative efforts to serve the common good. Students enrolled will work either independently, or in small teams, on a project of their own choosing. Ideally, students will apply to take this class with a project in mind. By the end of the class, students will have a well-designed plan to turn their project into an actionable solution if that is of interest.
This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to second year undergraduate students and above and graduate students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.