Improving the campus experience at the University of Toronto through student-led design
Our Innovation Hours continued this week with a look at the proposed plan to build the Innovation Hub teams. This past Tuesday a group of students and staff met to discuss the draft team structure and roles and share questions and insights about how the team will come together.
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Lead
Since the launch and the Day of Learning, our five Domains for Innovation have been evolving. A team of over 30 Ambassadors continued this work which led to six versions of the domains for innovation. We are so pleased to say that thanks to all of the input and feedback from the community, we have landed on the following five domains:
The Innovation Hour is an informal morning coffee hour for staff, faculty & students who are interested in learning more about the Innovation Hub and sharing innovative ideas that will enhance the student experience at the University of Toronto. It’s a chance to chat with colleagues about where innovation is already happening, to learn more about the Innovation Hub and to brainstorm opportunities for innovation. Hub updates will be provided during these meetings.
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Lead
The University of Toronto is home to some of Canada’s most famous research, discoveries and inventions. It’s important to remember, however, that these successes were often preceded by many failures. The Innovation Hub seeks to create a culture where failure is allowed, and even encouraged in the creative process. Our failures spark curiosity and allow us to learn. Failure propels us towards innovation!
There are so many great reasons to fail! Just take the advice of businessman, engineer & inventor Elon Musk:
On June 16th we continued our learning with a focus on learning how innovative methodologies from a wide variety of industries might be applied to the student experience at U of T. Speakers included many of our own faculty/staff from some of the most innovative areas of U of T and colleagues from the community who are doing some great work in this space. You can check out our Google Drive folder for more details about the Day of Learning and a collection of some of the presentations. We wrapped up the day with a very human-centred debrief time on the Cumberland House Lawn.
We launched the Innovation Hub on May 16th at Chestnut. This was a great day where we over 260 students, staff and faculty gathered to explore the mindset of innovation and discuss how we can bring innovation to the student experience at University of Toronto. our AVP of Student Life, Lucy Fromowitz, reminded us that our role is to “hold the door open” for students. She shared about the incredible innovation that is already happening across the University and encouraged us to explore ways to deepen our collaborations to explore how “when we work together the sum is much greater than the individual parts”.