Team UAlberta at the University of Reykjavik: professors and students are participating in a three-week crash course on innovation and entrepreneurship. (Photo: Arjun Kalburgi)
(Edmonton) A team of University of Alberta students and professors are taking part in a crash course on innovation and entrepreneurism at the University of Reykjavik, aiming to produce a similar program for students at the U of A.
The course randomly selects first-year students from all faculties to work together on teams charged with designing and creating a product and bringing it to the market-in just three weeks.
"When you're thrown together and given a big challenge . . . you learn a lot, fast," said mechanical engineering professor Mike Lipsett, one of three U of A professors taking part in the course. "It's a different way of learning ways to solve challenges."
The idea formed when Department of Computer Science Chair Mario Nascimento was meeting with his counterpart at the University of Reykjavik to investigate collaboration on gaming courses. While there, Nascimento learned about the innovation and entrepreneurship program. The U of R professor in charge of the program followed up by delivering a presentation on the course here, and the U of A jumped at the idea of piloting the program with students in their first year of science, engineering and business.
"We found out about this by serendipity," said Nascimento. "I met the co-ordinator of their program, saw some videos about it, and came back home thinking 'why don't we do this here?'"
Nascimento says he was both surprised and impressed by the fact that the U of A is hoping to implement a similar program in the 2017-2018 school year. The Faculties of Science, Engineering and the Alberta School of Business are collaborating on the project.
"The approach at Reykjavik University brings students from different faculties together sooner than most programs. The initial team, of science, engineering and business students and faculty members are visiting to explore how we can use this approach to complement other innovation and entrepreneurship activities already on campus," said School of Business professor Tony Briggs.
"By bringing together students and faculty from different areas, you increase their understanding and communication around the value of bringing together different approaches," he added. "In innovation, while a lone innovator can have a breakthrough impact, research has shown that diversity and brokered collaboration both increases the number of innovations and the likelihood that the innovation will have an important impact."
Arjun Kalburgi, a computer engineering student taking part in the trip, says he's excited about helping give more students opportunities to be creative with their education. Kalburgi, a fan of startup culture and events like hack-a-thons, places more value on learning experiences than grades.
"I'm going on this trip so I can help solve a problem that I see here," he said, adding that the more experiences students can get making things, the better equipped they are to join the workforce or start their own companies.
In Iceland, the U of A students will be randomly placed on different teams in the same way the students at Reykjavik are.
"We don't want out students to be working together on the same team," said Nascimento. "We want them to have the same experience of being completely immersed."
Lipsett is looking forward to finding a way to provide these experiences to students. Capacity for this kind of design-and-build work is growing with new design studios, a maker space and an "Engineering Garage" being built in the Faculty of Engineering, adding to similar existing facilities on campus.
"We'll have to figure out a way for this to work and fit in at the U of A," he said, adding that the experience would be valuable for students.
"I can really see how this could add value to the engineering program," he said. "It would give students their first exposure to engineering design and entrepreneurship-and an appreciation for design processes and multidisciplinary teamwork early in their program."