White boards, advanced tools, creative ideas and groups of innovators in a small space have the potential to do great things - that’s the idea behind the new hideout for creative thinkers in Franz.
Last year, junior Cole Preece and alumnus Taylor Hendricks ('16) attended an innovation training at Stanford University, and were inspired by the idea of bringing innovation to campus and turning it into physical reality.
After more than a year of planning and work, the ThinkTank Innovation Lab was created. The lab, which is located in Franz 123, is designed to be a collaborative space where students from different fields of study are able to share ideas, work together and generate solutions.
The lab is set to open with an official launch event on Oct. 12 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Franz 120.
The ceremony will include a short talk by John Sherry,director of Intel’s User Experience Innovation Lab and a UP alumnus (‘85), about the impact and significance of innovation for students, especially for future opportunities. It will then be followed by a recognition of the students who helped make the space happen.
Director for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Peter Rachor and Preece, a business major, highlighted their plan for the center, which is centered on teamwork and unity among different areas of study in a shared space.
“My inspiration as to why I pushed through with this plan is because there isn’t really any space on campus that facilitates collaboration for different majors to solve human-centered problems,” Preece said.
The lab is open to all disciplines, not only business majors, but those from STEM fields and the humanities as well.
“This space is available to all majors, so when we talk about solving a problem, it could be homelessness, better access to healthcare, and many others,” Rachor said. “It’s not only a business type of thing.”
To utilize this innovation space, there will be hours posted for open lab, pop-up courses and a reservation system similar to the library. Students can create teams to work in the lab based on class group work or similar research interests, or can visit the lab solo to find a group to work with.
“If there are people interested in this, but not yet part of a team, they can still come in, meet other people, join a team, and also come up with some project that they can work on in this lab,” Rachor said. “It’s a collaboration either for an existing group or other students looking to collaborate on new things as well.”
Pop-up courses, which are workshops designed to be like a test lab for students and professors, will be offered. The subjects of these courses have yet to be determined.
Preece described these courses as a test kitchen with a buffet to sample from.
“For professors, you can try to teach what you teach differently,” Preece said. “Or for students, you can try to partake in new subjects and different fields that you may be interested in.”
ThinkTank aims to provide students with tools varying from whiteboards, power outlets, lighting equipment and wheels that can be incorporated into to desks and work spaces, allowing students from all majors to learn how to think creatively.
“Students from different fields have very valuable perspectives, and breaking down these barriers to try to facilitate more ideas and prototype them is the key ingredient to our movement,” Preece said.
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For more information, contact Peter Rachor, director of entrepreneurship and innovation, at rachor@up.edu.
