sandekian
My Schedule
7:30 AM
to 8:00 AM
Breakfast
29 Attendees
Location
Ballroom
Type Conference Events, Meals
Enjoy a complimentary breakfast in the main stage area.
8:00 AM
to 9:00 AM
Opening plenary with Tina Seelig and James Barlow
34 Attendees
Location
Ballroom
Join us for the kickoff session of the NCIIA annual conference, designed to ignite innovation. Come prepared for an experiential exercise that will get your creative juices flowing and stimulate spirited collaboration. You will get a chance to work with your colleagues on a fast-paced challenge focusing on strategy, team work, and creative problem solving.
9:00 AM
to 10:30 AM
Developing Entrepreneurship Curricula for Sustainable Development
9 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
Interest in technology entrepreneurship aimed at solving the most intractable of global problems in the developing world is at an all-time high. A vast number of education programs, especially in engineering- and design-related degree programs, focus on developing appropriate technology solutions to Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) challenges in sectors such as food, water, energy, health, education and global connectivity. For many years, funding organizations have underwritten such efforts, only to see successful technologies that ultimately failed in the adoption cycle. The global community has largely come to the conclusion that technologies often fail because of they were never turned into sustainable enterprises. The authors have significant experience creating ventures in a developing world context (Africa, Mexico, American Indian, etc.) and in developing for-credit and non-credit technology entrepreneurship curricula for sustainable development. This session will discuss their experiences and offer suggestions for implementing successful ventures and curricula.
Tags Thurs 1A2
9:00 AM
to 10:30 AM
Guiding Principles for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects
6 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
The engineering profession must embrace a new mission statement: to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. Recently, engineering students and professionals in the US have shown more interest in directly addressing the needs of developing communities worldwide. That interest has taken the form of short- and medium-term international trips through Engineers Without Borders-USA and similar organizations. There are also several instances where this kind of outreach work has been integrated into engineering education. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with balancing two goals in engineering for humanitarian development projects: (i) effective sustainable community development, and (ii) meaningful education of engineers. Guiding principles necessary to meet those two goals are proposed.
Tags Thurs 1A1
9:00 AM
to 10:30 AM
PIET: Building a heuristic, interdisciplinary program focused on commercializing clean energy technologies in the developing world
8 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
In 2008, the University of California, in partnership with NCIIA, created the Program for International Energy Technologies (PIET) in order to accelerate the dissemination of low cost, clean energy, energy efficient solutions into the market in developing countries. The main objectives of this initiative are to: build an on-going program that will educate and engage UC Davis students in energy-related issues in developing countries; bridge the current gap between the need and existing technologies by creating market-based, entrepreneurial dissemination strategies; and allow student teams to create an impact on partner communities. The program's founder, Kurt Kornbluth, will talk about the PIET approach as well as curricula, the challenges and successes in development of the program, and highlights the current projects.
Tags Thurs 1A3
10:30 AM
to 11:00 AM
11:00 AM
to 12:30 PM
Open Design-based Strategies to Enhance Appropriate Technology Development
9 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
The appropriate technology (AT) movement is being driven by inventors and innovators who are interested in designing technologies that are culturally, environmentally and economically appropriate, and feasible to construct and use for people anywhere in the world. This paper examines how open sharing of designs, specifications and technical information can enhance effectiveness, widespread use, and innovation of AT. This commons-based open design method has been highly successful for software development (e.g. open source), and has also begun to be used in other fields through unique partnerships, and using new information-sharing technologies on the internet. This paper critically demonstrates key examples of open design successes that can be applied to development of AT. It also identifies potential barriers to open sourcing AT designs, analyzes business models for open design in the context of AT, and outlines practical solutions with examples currently underway.
Tags Thurs 2C3
11:00 AM
to 12:30 PM
Social Entrepreneurship
6 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
This study examined social entrepreneurship in the context of the academic field by looking at forms of implementation at universities across the country. Thirty-two universities were selected to be contacted about their respective programs. The goal of contacting universities was to create an easily viewed and comprehensive database featuring key information about each SE program. The included universities were chosen based on various sources, including Ashoka rankings, AACSB information, national university program rankings and articles on the subject. The surveys of the universities provided insight into established SE curricula and program structures. The findings of this study have shown that many universities have varied programs in both offerings and size, and while the programs are typically popular with students from a wide variety of majors, popularity is impacted by the way the university defines SE.
Tags Thurs 2C1
12:30 PM
to 2:30 PM
Lunch and keynote speaker Doug Richard
28 Attendees
Location
Ballroom
Type Conference Events, Meals
Doug Richard is a leading proponent and practitioner of entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom and the US. In this keynote address, Doug will discuss entrepreneurship, its importance in the modern economy, and the role of government and universities in catalyzing entrepreneurship. Doug will talk about: Why the public interest is best served by self-interest; Why the most successful enterprises are all social enterprises; Why entrepreneurs are never born, only made; Why the US must learn to export entrepreneurship not merely to the rest of the world but the rest of the nation; Why governments can only create playing fields; Why capital is not what limits the rate of entrepreneurship; and Why universities are our best hope for cultural change.
4:00 PM
to 5:30 PM
Poster session
21 Attendees
Location
Prefunction space outside the ballroom, third level
Featuring twenty posters covering a wide range of topics, an open bar and time to network.
8:00 AM
to 9:00 AM
9:00 AM
to 10:30 AM
The Last Mile: Building an innovation ecosystem to support technology entrepreneurs
11 Attendees
Location
Washington
The last mile in the development of a new venture, moving from feasible concept to business, can result in the venture never starting. Entrepreneurs, especially those in rural communities, often lack access to the resources and expertise needed to harden the concept and convert it to an operating business. In 2009, the N2TEC Institute launched a unique summer accelerator program that included an AI2V intensive workshop and an eight-week period that addressed the critical knowledge, expertise, and resource issues of the participants by surrounding them with a team of mentors and experts. The result was the launch of five new businesses in South Dakota and one in Oregon. Participants were selected from a national call for technology entrepreneurs willing to move to Sioux Falls for the summer, receive a stipend of $15,000, and work aggressively toward the launch of their business.
Tags Fri 1D
10:30 AM
to 11:00 AM
11:00 AM
to 12:30 PM
Preparing Students to Travel Overseas: Experiences from MIT's D-Lab
6 Attendees
Location
Washington
Type Student Development, Workshops
Nadia Elkordy, Gwyn Jones, Kendra Leith, Ariel Phillips, Amy Smith, Kofi Taha
For many students, addressing challenges faced in developing countries is the most rewarding application of their education. Over the several years of their existence, D-Lab courses at MIT have been taken by many students, most of whom travel to developing countries as part of their project work. Instructors and students alike frequently face interesting and surprising challenges before and during trips. Often, what we have prepared in university classrooms and workshops looks very different when we arrive in the field. For example, it's easy to forget simple things, like making personal introductions before launching into project questions in a new village. This workshop will provide an overview of the history and development of MIT's D-Lab family of courses, as well as perspectives from former D-Lab students and trip leaders about such challenges as advance communication with community partners, design obstacles, and difficult team dynamics. We will also share stories of successful practices and lessons learned the hard way, both before and during trips. We will include opportunities for attendees to discuss their experiences and knowledge about preparing students for travel.
Tags Fri 2C
12:30 PM
to 2:30 PM
Olympus Innovation Awards luncheon
12 Attendees
Location
Ballroom
Recognizing faculty excellence and innovation in higher education.
2:30 PM
to 4:00 PM
Developing Social Entrepreneurship at WPI
2 Attendees
Location
Mason II
Social entrepreneurship is the use of entrepreneurial principles to solve a social problem or create sustainable social value. This study assessed the feasibility of initiating a social entrepreneurship program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The feasibility was measured by gathering data from two different environments: WPI's campus, and universities in the US offering social entrepreneurship programs. WPI student survey results, focus group results, and faculty interviews demonstrated a general lack of understanding of social entrepreneurship on campus. A deeper analysis, however, demonstrated that students and faculty members are interested in social entrepreneurship, especially in the form of sustainability and related fields. The recommendations for implementation of a program at WPI include raising awareness of the subject on campus and gradually introducing extracurricular activities to eventually lead into more robust activities such as projects, courses, and ventures.
Tags Fri 3C3
2:30 PM
to 4:00 PM
Eplum Model of Student Engagement: Preliminary assessment findings
3 Attendees
Location
Mason II
We have developed the Eplum model to engage students and faculty across campus in humanitarian engineering and social entrepreneurial ventures. The objective is the convergence of disciplines, concepts, cultures, and countries toward a freer, friendlier, fairer and more sustainable planet. The model engages students and faculty in well-defined global civic engagement projects in various formal and informal ways, from the sub-credit to multi-credit level. During the spring 2009 semester, 151 students participated in three ventures in Kenya: Mashavu (telemedicine), WishVast (social networking) and Eco-Village. We will present the model and share preliminary assessment results of the impact of these projects on students' knowledge acquisition, self-perceptions, and future career plans. We will also present the conceptual framework of the Eplum model assessment effort, which seeks to understand how different forms and levels of engagement in these ventures leads to the internationalization, public scholarship and multidisciplinary teamwork outcomes at various levels.
Tags Fri 3C2
2:30 PM
to 4:00 PM
Integrating Sustainable Community Development in Engineering Education
5 Attendees
Location
Mason II
In 2004, we received a grant from NCIIA to develop a new graduate course in development engineering. It went through four iterations based on feedback received from students and faculty. The final iteration was offered in academic year 2008-09 as a six-credit hour course titled Sustainable Community Development I (SCD I, fall) and II (SCD II, spring). SCD I emphasizes a public health perspective and participatory models, with an overview of development and global health concepts and issues. SCD II covers the principles, practices and strategies of appropriate technology as part of an integrated and systems approach to community-based development. This latest version of the course will be offered for the foreseeable future. This session describes challenges faced in developing the different course iterations and how to include social entrepreneurship and public heath in engineering education.
Tags Fri 3C1
6:30 PM
to 11:59 PM
March Madness for the Mind
21 Attendees
Location
Exploratorium
The March Madness for the Mind exhibition is a celebration of student E-Team innovation and entrepreneurship. Each year, top E-Teams (collaborating groups of college students, faculty and industry mentors) showcase their work in a science or technology museum during NCIIA's annual meeting, many unveiling their cutting-edge innovations to the public for the first time.
8:00 AM
to 9:00 AM
Breakfast plenary: Steve Blank
22 Attendees
Location
Ballroom
Type Conference Events, Meals
Steve Blank, author of Four Steps to the Epiphany, will share currents and trends in Silicon Valley as they relate to entrepreneurship and design thinking educators.
10:30 AM
to 11:00 AM
11:00 AM
to 12:30 PM
Sustainable Design Projects in Capstone Design Courses
5 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
Experiential learning has been emphasized in the School of Engineering at the University of Dayton for over twenty-five years. The evolution has gone from individual projects to team projects and from single discipline to multidisciplinary teams. Industry-sponsored projects were formalized in 1996 with the formation of the Design and Manufacturing Clinic. Further, innovation and entrepreneurship were better integrated in 2004 with the formation of the Innovation Center. The percentage of projects related to design for the environment, design of thermal systems and renewable energy systems reached about one-third of the capstone design projects. Simultaneously, emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship has increased in the same proportion. The purpose of this paper is to share the experiences of entrepreneurship and sustainability over these last five years. Thus, this session covers the applied aspects of sustainability and entrepreneurship in design education.
Tags Sat 2C3
11:00 AM
to 12:30 PM
The Co-design of Eco- and Culturally-inspired Housing with the Pinoleville Pomo Nation
4 Attendees
Location
Montgomery
The Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN) of Ukiah, California and the Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CARES) have formed a partnership to design eco-friendly buildings that utilize sustainability best practices and renewable energy technology, as well as reflect the long-standing culture and traditions of the PPN. We present the yurt-style house design created by this partnership and illustrate how Native American tribes can partner with universities and other organizations to utilize engineering expertise to develop solutions that address the needs of the tribes. As a result of this partnership, the yurt-style house design created can be used to create centralized housing and office buildings in Ukiah that will aid in the unification and economic advancement of the PPN. The buildings will also let members take advantage of job training and other educational services provided by the PPN. Construction of the design began in July 2009.
Tags Sat 2C1
12:30 PM
to 2:00 PM
