Over the next seven weeks, Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) three deans will, for the first time together, engage undergraduates in exploring the application of innovation and entrepreneurship in addressing the world’s great problems and challenges.
The course - Leadership, Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship - will challenge students to see the complexity and multi-disciplinary approach necessary for finding solutions to great problems such as food and energy supply, healthcare quality and delivery, and global sustainability. Beginning on Oct. 25, the course is being taught by WPI’s three inaugural Deans: lead instructor Mark P. Rice, dean of the WPI School of Business, and co-instructors Karen Oates, dean of Arts and Sciences, and Selcuk Guceri, dean of Engineering. The class will feature case studies, guest speakers and individual and team exercises.
"This experimental course explores the interconnections across the engineering, science, arts, and business disciplines as they apply to helping solve some of the world’s great problems,” Dean Rice said. “From the very start of their WPI education, our students begin to focus on applying their knowledge to problem solving. This approach is a critical distinction for WPI, its students and our global community, mainly because it’s new and emerging technologies that will create opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs to address those great problems, and WPI’s students will be among those creating solutions and opportunities."
