Starting Sept. 21, the University of Rhode Island will be bringing together different forms of innovation on campus in an “Innovation with Impact” event.
URI has many projects that support innovation on the campus prompting the Academic Innovations Group to decide to create an event in which these innovations can all be tied together.
A series of events will be held in the upcoming weeks to show students that anything is possible if they open up their minds. Students will have the opportunity to solve health problems, see business pitches and much more.
Deedee Chatham, who manages multiple Interdisciplinary Experiential Initiatives at URI, said, “It kind of opens up their mind to what they’re capable of.”
Students can sometimes have a hard time realizing their full capability because they have a closed mindset. The goal of “Innovation with Impact” is to open up the minds of people who attend, in order to show them that they are capable of making their own mark on the world. By seeing other students reach their full potential, attendees will start to think of how they can achieve theirs.
One of the events that is taking place is all about students coming together in order to solve problems in the health industry. This event, called “Health Hacks,” brings groups of people together to feed off of each other’s ideas and come up with an innovative way to solve a specific problem related to health and mobility.
“We want to connect what they’re interested in learning outside of the classroom,” Chatham said.
The majority of these events are open to the public and are really about taking interests beyond the classroom. Nancy Forster-Holt and her BUS 249 class, which is about entrepreneurship, has decided to participate in “Innovation with Impact.” On Sept. 27, Forster-Holt will have her class pitch their business ideas to students in Adams Hall, in order to get feedback and have the experience of a more professional setting when giving their pitches.
“They are on a journey to see if an idea can become a business and first you have to target some customers,” Forster-Holt said.
Forster-Holt is allowing her students to tap into their innovative minds and see how the younger generation will make their stamp on the business world. The majority of the pitches are regarding students or something on campus, which makes it a great time for students to enhance their community with their innovative ideas. Forster-Holt encourages all freshman, especially ones in the business department, to attend this event to be able to voice their opinion on the pitches given.