{"id":168,"date":"2017-12-13T10:51:31","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T15:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/?p=168"},"modified":"2017-12-13T10:51:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T15:51:31","slug":"the-power-of-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/2017\/12\/13\/the-power-of-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you were to ask an educator to name one of the biggest trends of today, they might point to the ever-increasing number of programs on campuses dealing with entrepreneurship and innovation.\u00a0 UMass Lowell has been a leader in this movement, with its DifferenceMaker <\/a>program set to host its sixth Idea Challenge this spring, awarding $50,000 in prize money to deserving student teams that generate (and sell) ideas with appeal and potential.<\/p>\n

In an effort to further prepare our students for the Idea Challenge, the Francis College of Engineering hosts a Prototyping Competition<\/a> each Fall.\u00a0 The finals were held last week, with winning prototypes that included an inexpensive wound dressing for use in the field; a smart pill dispenser; an automated paint mixer (matching color to a digital picture); and an app for students to more easily find a job on campus.\u00a0 As novel as the potential products were, I saw more potential in the students \u2013 ranging from freshmen to graduate students from across the University. They were not competing because it involved a grade or was required \u2013 they were participating because they had an idea that they wanted to pursue and share.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, UMass Lowell was invited to be an inaugural participant in the Pathways to Innovation program created by the NSF-funded Epicenter<\/a> and VentureWell<\/a>.\u00a0 It was through this program that entrepreneurial endeavors, such as our Prototyping Competition and Interdisciplinary Senior Design Program, were started.\u00a0 It was also through this program that faculty, such as Dr. David Willis of Mechanical Engineering, were encouraged to integrate innovation and entrepreneurship into the engineering curriculum.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I attended our MECH.1070 Project Expo \u2013 45 teams of Mechanical Engineering freshmen showing off products built in their \u201cIntroduction to Mechanical Engineering\u201d class (taught by Dr. Willis).\u00a0 Specifically, students were asked to build a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine.\u00a0 While we normally think of a CNC machine as a lathe or mill, the students were tasked with being creative and turning their 2- or 3-axis machines into something \u201cuseful\u201d.\u00a0 Cleverly coupled with multiple sensors, I witnessed machines that: read text and printed braille; dispensed ideal amounts of toothpaste and mouthwash; folded a shirt; dispensed medication; mixed vaccines; played chess; and whimsically made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (just to name a few projects).\u00a0 I learned, and laughed, and was extremely impressed, as each team \u201cpitched\u201d the value of their product.<\/p>\n

It was clear that the students had learned a lot \u2013 about design (and CAD), manufacturing (machining and additive), and control (sensors and lots of MatLAB code).\u00a0 But it was also clear that the students had fun \u2013 and had a purpose.\u00a0 When asked about their motivation, they all had good answers \u2013 usually wanting to solve a problem or making the world a better place.\u00a0 That<\/strong> is the power of innovation.<\/p>\n

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If you were to ask an educator to name one of the biggest trends of today, they might point to the ever-increasing number of programs on campuses dealing with entrepreneurship and innovation.\u00a0 UMass Lowell has been a leader in this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[95,25,82,31,48,47,45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}