Sign up now for COMM325 – Design Thinking and COMM424 – Creative Entrepreneurship for immersive, action-oriented learning in fast-paced weekend workshop formats.
In COMM325, students will dive into an intense weekend learning and applying the Design Thinking methodology, which has emerged as a compelling practice for communicating and innovating based on human values. Originally proposed and popularized by the international product design firm Ideo and Stanford University's d.School, Design Thinking has been adopted and applied by every kind of organization seeking to promote creativity and collaboration on its teams, including IBM, Nike, Apple, Google and others.
In COMM424, students will apply the Lean startup methodology to propose, test, and iterate on product prototypes, leading up to an end-of-term pitch. This course is taught by Heather Stafford, formerly Executive Director of the Sustainable Valley Startup Accelerator and Assistant Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Business Oregon, the state government’s economic development agency.
In both courses, students will have the opportunity to connect with teams and build pitches for the InventOR Collegiate Startup Challenge. This statewide innovation competition provides a pathway for students to connect with money, mentorship and training that can help make student ideas real. Student teams nominated from SOU at the end of Winter term will be eligible for fully funded training in prototyping and pitching via InventOR, and will be competing for a spot in the statewide competition hosted in Portland in June, 2019.
For more information, please contact Erik Palmer, palmere@sou.edu.
