An innovative idea with missing pieces

Colin Hannifin

Contributing Writer

As I was registering for classes in March of 2010, I was looking forward to participating in a unique opportunity offered by the VCU’s da Vinci Center Project Course—a chance to work on a company-sponsored project with students from Business, Arts, and Engineering. I struggled to fit room into my long-term schedule for this three credit class, as my semester schedule, like those of so many of my fellow students, is too packed to fit in the courses required for my major. But I knew its worth, and I shuffled my schedule to make room for this one-of-a-kind course.
The VCU da Vinci Center of Innovation’s Project Course (INNO 460) brings together ambitious students from the fields of business, arts, and engineering to work together for a semester on an innovative project for a sponsor, such as MeadWestvaco (MWV) or the State of Virginia. While the da Vinci Center is consistently turning out great products, it is detrimentally limiting itself by excluding the College of Humanities and Sciences and other schools and departments from the opportunity to be part of the da Vinci Center Project Course. This is less by decree of exclusion and more due to the difficulties of finding room for a rigorous interdisciplinary course in the various respective curricula upheld by VCU’s various colleges.
The College of Humanities and Sciences is the most glaring omission, as it hosts almost 12,300 undergraduate students, more than 56 percent of all undergraduate students. It includes diverse areas of study, from political science to psychology, from biology to English. The wealth of knowledge in the school is wide, and could certainly enrich the VCU da Vinci Center.
The da Vinci Center focuses on bridging gaps between people and majors to foster an environment of creativity and innovation. Even though they’re housed, at least partially, in the same building, it’s rare to see business majors work alongside engineering majors—much less art majors. Yet this happens every day at the da Vinci Center. So why was the College of Humanities and Sciences not invited to the party?
I spoke with da Vinci Center director Dr. Kahn about this issue. Though he was not here at the inception of the Center, he indicated that at the Center’s founding, Humanities and Sciences wasn’t purposefully left out, they just weren’t there when the Colleges of Business, Engineering, and Arts collaborated to create the da Vinci Center.
Dr. Kahn also made clear the fact that he was more than willing to bring in the College of Humanities and Sciences. In the past several years the focus has been on building up the program, to ensure it was robust and challenging. In that regard, he has certainly succeeded, as the da Vinci Center has morphed from a one-course offering to developing an Undergraduate Certificate in Product Innovation, and is currently working to get a graduate program on product innovation approved.
As the Center proves itself—the speaker seminar course (INNO 200) has swelled from just 15 students in its first semester last fall to over 50 this semester—the time to open the gates the rest of the university is quickly approaching.
However, it is a daunting task. Trying to collaborate with so many schools and areas of study, there are two major challenges. The first is to get projects that match well with the respective students’ area of study. While a biology student on the pre-med track might be indispensible while working on a prosthetic prototype, his or her skill set would not be as helpful in developing a marketing plan for a new product. The other, more significant challenge is to fit this unique opportunity into the curriculum developed for particular majors.
Several majors and tracks, such as nursing, have rigorous, pre-defined sets of curriculum that the student essentially follows while at VCU, with very little deviation. Using this approach, the schools can ensure that the students get the information, classes, and training they need to succeed beyond college.
However, college is meant to be more than book-fed information, and a successful college experience requires more than your day-to-day studying. The da Vinci project course not only offers a reprieve from the typical courses, it does so in a manner that is extremely relevant and beneficial to prospering in a job after graduation. Tracks and majors that dictate precisely what courses are to be taken, as well as when they are taken, are doing not only their students a disfavor, but their department as well. Opportunities like the da Vinci Center are rare, and produce more qualified graduates than classes alone can. Schools and departments should be jumping at the chance to be associated with the da Vinci Center, not lag behind for fear of departing from their closely-held course curriculum.
These challenges have already been overcome among the Colleges of Business, Arts, and Engineering, though it took years to perfect. The other colleges and departments could work out similar solutions with the da Vinci center. The heads of VCU’s schools and departments need to step up and engage Dr. Kahn to resolve the curriculum issue and open the gates of opportunity to their students. There are indications that this has already begun—the School of Social Work participated in a project last summer and Dr. Kahn is in talks with the School of Nursing—but this needs to be removed from the back burner and given priority.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kahn hopes to see the da Vinci Center to continue to grow, to create a “pan-campus” environment of creativity and innovation. As he told me, “We’re moving forward.” CT
For more information on the VCU da Vinci Center, visit www.davincicenter.vcu.edu