Global Arc

In today's hypercompetitive global marketplace, innovation is the lifeblood of any business enterprise. This course exposes students to all fundamental aspects of the technological innovation process: invention/concept development, intellectual property, business plan preparation, competitive intelligence, R&D management, and critical success factors, project management, commercialization. It covers the basic management practices required to excel in the craft of successful innovation and prepares students to become technology-savvy leaders of industry or government, as well as managers and executives in a complex technological society.

In Community Project Studios (formerly 'EPICS'), students earn academic credit for participation in multidisciplinary teams that work on projects over one or more years. The course mission is to provide a hands-on, experiential environment, in which students (often alongside community partners) bring real-world projects through to fruition. Although the methodology and projects vary for each studio, all teams in the program are supported through skill-development workshops, close-knit advising, and cultures of peer-to-peer collaboration. Students may participate for up to six semesters.

In Community Project Studios (formerly 'EPICS'), students earn academic credit for participation in multidisciplinary teams that work on projects over one or more years. The course mission is to provide a hands-on, experiential environment, in which students (often alongside community partners) bring real-world projects through to fruition. Although the methodology and projects vary for each studio, all teams in the program are supported through skill-development workshops, close-knit advising, and cultures of peer-to-peer collaboration. Students may participate for up to six semesters.

Starting and operating a complex venture in a regulated market is often faced with tremendous challenges in developing and validating the idea to attract investors and industry partners. With an initial perspective of what it takes to attract funding, the course will focus on teaching three main skills 1) What makes a complex business initially fundable through private and public resources, 2) Identifying the problem and validating the solution in a regulated, multi-stakeholder market 3) Launching the business and developing the operational plan post launch.

This course will build on the foundational design-thinking curriculum of EGR 392. The goal is to extend students' understanding of creativity and innovation, so as to productively apply it to cross-disciplinary problem solving. The course will emphasize empathic methodologies for breaking down complex organizational challenges and for developing meaningful solutions within experience design, brand strategy, storytelling and communications.

Autonomy, flexibility, confidence and rigor are essential qualities for effectively working with design thinking in real life and dealing with challenges that emerge from chaos, ambiguity and lack of structure. This course is both an in-depth experience for students who completed ENT200 or Tiger Challenge, and an opportunity to use design thinking skills to tackle problems within domains and interests they are passionate about. Students will learn designers' mindsets and a wider range of research and design methods to start working more independently as designers.

This course looks at longstanding societal challenges through the lens of socially-minded entrepreneurship and innovation. We will explore whether and how social-benefit venture models - for-profit or non-profit - can help address comparable issues in underserved urban and rural communities across America. How can these communities become more self-reliant and prosperous against a backdrop of increasing inequality in our society? We will explore potential models for durable social ventures, engage with frontline entrepreneurs, and most importantly develop your own solution ideas for the problems and communities you care about.

Shaping cities, buildings and objects to exploit the potentials of inevitable technological change is an important path to transform the world where we live. This class will lead students through a complete design thinking cycle (empathizing, reframing, ideation, prototyping, testing, proposing) focused on proposing potentially real entities, products, services, structures, activities, or widely acceptable changes to policy for the adoption of new technology.

This hands-on course introduces students to analysis and actions required to launch and commercialize a tech company, through the use of Harvard Business School cases, visits from entrepreneurs, and two "field assignments". You will learn conceptual frameworks and analytical techniques for evaluating technologies, markets, and commercialization strategies. Additionally, you will learn how to attract and motivate the resources needed to start a company (e.g. people, corporate partners and venture capital), prepare business plans, structure relationships, refine product-market fit, and create and grow enterprise value.

Radical innovation solves big problems and alters the way we live, colliding with government polices as the effects ripple across national frontiers. Where do these innovations come from, how do they work, and what policy problems do they cause? This class examines the impact of technical innovation on a global scale. Students learn how innovations in areas such as satellite imaging, global positioning, internet search engines, and pandemic vaccines have a profound impact on foreign policy. Students learn to think about innovation from the standpoint of business managers, government regulators, social entrepreneurs, in very practical terms.