Developing Innovators... Transforming Education
The IDC is an interdisciplinary initiative to foster innovation and creative problem solving throughout the Appalachian State University campus. Rooted in Design Thinking, the IDC works through multiple channels to bring that methodology to research, teaching and new initiatives at the university, expanding the creative capacity of our campus. To accomplish our mission and pursue our vision, we focus on five objectives:
- Objective # 1: Developing Innovators: We work to develop the next generation of visionary leaders who can be change agents within and across our institutions.
- Objective # 2: Building Community: We partner with external clients to work on real world projects and build partnerships that will extend past the life of any one project.
- Objective # 3: Improving Society: We choose projects that matter and for which potential solutions can have a positive impact on society.
- Objective # 4: Growing Economy: We identify gaps in the existing market and generate solutions to fill them, helping to grow our local and global economy.
- Objective # 5: Transforming Education: We are laser focused on uncovering new and better ways to develop future leaders, innovators, and collaborators.
To accomplish our objectives, we offer executive education programs, faculty development workshops, undergraduate courses such as AppLab and provide project-based consulting for faculty, researchers and project teams.