Innovation College Sept. 14 to 18 highlights creativity, leadership, collaboration

What does it take to innovate?

Innovation Engineering is a new field of study that focuses on increasing the speed of innovation and decreasing risk through systems thinking. It calls for a systematic approach to innovation, from brainstorming to product/process development to problem-solving within an organization.

This fall, business professionals, organization leaders, entrepreneurs, and students  are invited to explore these concepts further through Innovation College, a program that equips participants with the skills to innovate from idea to  implementation/delivery.

Presented in collaboration by the Western Idea Institute and Ohio-based organization, Innovation Engineering Institute, the program will be offered from September 14-18 on Western’s campus.

 “[Innovation Engineering] is about making innovation accessible and enabling all people within organizations to use these skills— making innovation not just in the realm of organizational gurus or senior leaders of a company,” said Denny Organ, a Western instructor who teaches Innovation Engineering courses. 

In five days of hands-on labs and 100 pre-work short digital classes, participants will learn 48 skills to create, communicate, and commercialize meaningfully unique ideas. Innovations can be in the areas of products/markets and are equally important when applied to internal organization processes and systems; both are covered during Innovation College.

Any organization, company or individual can use these tools. Organ and a group of Western students used Innovation Engineering skills to fundraise for the Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management program, quadrupling the amount of money they raised compared to previous years.

In addition to financial outcomes, Innovation Engineering can help organizations improve leadership and collaboration.

“We see it as management development for senior and future leaders, so that they think like entrepreneurs, have skills in innovation, and are able to lead and coach teams,” Organ said.

Doug Hall, who founded the field of Innovation Engineering in 2005, will co-teach the course with Innovation College faculty Maggie Pfieifer, James Beaupre and Brad Hall. Western is the first university on the west coast to host the program, which originated at Eureka! Ranch in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Innovation College is the accelerated industry version of the three core classes taught at over 20 universities across the country. Upon completion of Innovation College, participants will receive an Innovation Engineering “Blue Belt” certificate.

Western’s IDEA Institute offers an entrepreneurship minor and is currently developing the Innovation Engineering three-course series. This fall, Western will offer the first course in the series, a 4-credit quarter-long course entitled “DSCI 397x: Innovation Engineering I: Create.”

To register for Innovation College or to learn more, please visit www.wwu.edu/ee/conference/innovation.