Curriculum

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Descriptions

DSGN 495: NUvention: Innovate for Impact

Description

NUvention: Innovate for Impact is an interdisciplinary experiential learning program designed to expose students to the design and launch of market-based ventures that address unmet societal and environmental needs of both an international and domestic nature. The social entrepreneurial approach to addressing global challenges such as poverty, hunger, lack of access to sanitation, the need for sustainable energy supply and affordable health care will be the focus of the course. Innovate for Impact will walk students through the steps associated with creating and implementing a social venture—a venture that addresses a social issue while simultaneously being financially self-sufficient.

Students will be exposed to the user-centered design process for social impact, market and nonmarket contexts of resource-challenged settings and the nuts-and-bolts of launching a venture. Like other NUvention courses, Innovate for Impact represents the most aggressive attempt to allow students to create a start-up social venture within the framework of a class.