Blended 'Innovation' Program At CMU Fast-Tracks Innovators

摘要

Applying its own innovative thinking, Carnegie Mellon University decided last year to unite graduate programs in engineering, fine arts design and business in what it calls "an unprecedented market-focused center designed to speed the pace of innovation." As it passes its first anniversary, the Pittsburgh school's Integrated Innovation Institute offers or plans to offer degree programs in three states; student projects have gone commercial and more than 100 new graduate students have signed for next year. While two of the institute's degree programs go back a decade, the new program cross-trains all participants in the three disciplines it considers the core of innovation and offers a "pilot laboratory" where grad-student teams tackle corporate-sponsored challenges "with real-world rigor and accountability," as well as larger social issues.