#rsearch — Public Fediverse posts

A Campus is a City – An Architecture for Innovation at Scale

A concept note on how a large university campus can build innovation and entrepreneurial mindset at scale – not through events, but through empowerment.

Entrepreneurship is a mindset, more than a result or an outcome. An innovation program that aims to inspire over 10,000 lives on-campus has to not just target, say, 2500 start up ideas that come out of it like a funnel, but plant a seed within all, so students succeed in their lives with an innovation and entrepreneurial spirit – albeit in jobs.

10,000 students cannot be impacted in one go through a centralized mechanism. The campus has to function like a city with systems and processes. The following is the plan:

Distribute the faculty into interdisciplinary groups that directly relate their research with an industrial application. For instance, a material scientist and a biologist brought together for, say, manufacturing soft materials.

Let’s say you identify ‘N’ such unique groups depending upon the size of your fraternity, each with around 10 faculty members, of which two step up as coordinators for their group. Now, create a training program for these ‘2*N’ faculty members, so they can sensitize and train the rest of the faculty from their group as per the group’s scope and requirement. The university’s innovation cell helps the coordinators with a customized training plan, relevant material, access to equipment, tools, etc.

Now all of these trained faculty then train the PhDs and Postdocs working under them who then become the point of contact for undergraduate and postgraduate students who choose which group they align more with and associate accordingly.

This entire process has to be tracked through a central portal. Further, regular support has be provided to anyone across the hierarchy to pitch in an offline engagement, like, inviting an industry professional or a scientist relevant to their group, or going for a factory tour, etc. Students should be able to earn credits, and this initiative-taking can be further incentivized as leadership training where faculty earn points towards their career advancement and recognition.

Each group runs decentralized but centrally tracked and supported bootcamps, which even members from different groups can participate in, based on their interests, and the schedule is published well in advance, along with learning outcomes and actionable insights that come out of each session, because this program shouldn’t just checkmark the list of activities done for the sake of visibility, but should actually result in tangible action plans at the end of it – be it technology transfer, or a DeepTech startup, or a better understanding of the real world that leads to better research output and industry collaborations.

The program should also self-sustain, so that every year, with new admissions, the program continues as part of the culture of the university, and the alumni engage with their group members even after graduation.

This celebration of science and technology solves for the long term that India desperately needs. Further, in parallel, centralized awareness campaigns have to be organized where you don’t ask students to come to the innovation cell, but the administration goes to them – in labs, in mechanical shops, in canteens and hostel mess, etc. to engage with the future of India.

Subscribe to get notified or follow the blog, and if you like what I write, please share it with your network 🙂

A Campus is a City – An Architecture for Innovation at Scale

A concept note on how a large university campus can build innovation and entrepreneurial mindset at scale – not through events, but through empowerment.

Entrepreneurship is a mindset, more than a result or an outcome. An innovation program that aims to inspire over 10,000 lives on-campus has to not just target, say, 2500 start up ideas that come out of it like a funnel, but plant a seed within all, so students succeed in their lives with an innovation and entrepreneurial spirit – albeit in jobs.

10,000 students cannot be impacted in one go through a centralized mechanism. The campus has to function like a city with systems and processes. The following is the plan:

Distribute the faculty into interdisciplinary groups that directly relate their research with an industrial application. For instance, a material scientist and a biologist brought together for, say, manufacturing soft materials.

Let’s say you identify ‘N’ such unique groups depending upon the size of your fraternity, each with around 10 faculty members, of which two step up as coordinators for their group. Now, create a training program for these ‘2*N’ faculty members, so they can sensitize and train the rest of the faculty from their group as per the group’s scope and requirement. The university’s innovation cell helps the coordinators with a customized training plan, relevant material, access to equipment, tools, etc.

Now all of these trained faculty then train the PhDs and Postdocs working under them who then become the point of contact for undergraduate and postgraduate students who choose which group they align more with and associate accordingly.

This entire process has to be tracked through a central portal. Further, regular support has be provided to anyone across the hierarchy to pitch in an offline engagement, like, inviting an industry professional or a scientist relevant to their group, or going for a factory tour, etc. Students should be able to earn credits, and this initiative-taking can be further incentivized as leadership training where faculty earn points towards their career advancement and recognition.

Each group runs decentralized but centrally tracked and supported bootcamps, which even members from different groups can participate in, based on their interests, and the schedule is published well in advance, along with learning outcomes and actionable insights that come out of each session, because this program shouldn’t just checkmark the list of activities done for the sake of visibility, but should actually result in tangible action plans at the end of it – be it technology transfer, or a DeepTech startup, or a better understanding of the real world that leads to better research output and industry collaborations.

The program should also self-sustain, so that every year, with new admissions, the program continues as part of the culture of the university, and the alumni engage with their group members even after graduation.

This celebration of science and technology solves for the long term that India desperately needs. Further, in parallel, centralized awareness campaigns have to be organized where you don’t ask students to come to the innovation cell, but the administration goes to them – in labs, in mechanical shops, in canteens and hostel mess, etc. to engage with the future of India.

Subscribe to get notified or follow the blog, and if you like what I write, please share it with your network 🙂

Is this The Creator Weapon? It exists? For real? But none can look up? At the daylight sky? In an undisclosed location? Or disclosed? Since when? One decade? Or two? Much more? A time travel paradox? Can you find it? Can you see it? Through the clouds? Or an alien sign?

M?R?T

https://x.com/MariaCreatorTru/status/1988560113406255334

#TheCreator #20thCentury #20thcenturystudios #20thCenturyUK #Cinema #Movies #Films #TheCreatorWeapon #Photography #Art #sky #Weapon #Weapons #Satellites #Satellite #Math #Vision #Rsearch #Memory

Is this The Creator Weapon? It exists? For real? But none can look up? At the daylight sky? In an undisclosed location? Or disclosed? Since when? One decade? Or two? Much more? A time travel paradox? Can you find it? Can you see it? Through the clouds? Or an alien sign?

M?R?T

https://x.com/MariaCreatorTru/status/1988560113406255334

#TheCreator #20thCentury #20thcenturystudios #20thCenturyUK #Cinema #Movies #Films #TheCreatorWeapon #Photography #Art #sky #Weapon #Weapons #Satellites #Satellite #Math #Vision #Rsearch #Memory