Hello DI TEAM and REGULAR members!
Please read through our recent updates - we have some changes to the planning for the next DI TEAM meeting, plans for engaging all newly-admitted Kent State students with DI, as well as some great progress with students starting the DI Fellows Program!
DI Fellows Program:
Please welcome the students shown below as the pioneers (and co-designers) of the DI Fellows Program! We started our first meeting by taking a sneek peek tour of the DI HUB. (see attached photo, in case you are not yet following our instagram/facebook feeds). Following the tour we had pizza and conversation in which they asked a bunch of great questions about the DI HUB and how the whole DI Initiative could work. They are very engaged and committed to making it happen! Please let me know if you would be willing to host a meeting session and address one of the modules/topics in our list of activities for the group (for reference, the DI Fellows Program description is here)
| Design Innovation Membership Application | Last Name | First Name | Middle Initial | Primary Affiliation | Department And/or Major(S) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DI Fellow | Coetzer-Liversage | Anthony | P | acoetzer@kent.edu | Kent State University | College of Public Health |
| DI Fellow | Eddy | Jillian | - | jeddy5@kent.edu | Kent State University - Tuscawares | Engineering Technology, Computer Design, Animation, Game Des |
| DI Fellow | Leyden | Luke | J | lleyden1@kent.edu | Kent State University | Engineering Department in the college of Aeronautics and Engineering. Major: Computer Engineering Technology, Minor: Theatrical Lighting |
| DI Fellow | Thompson | Khalil | N | kthomp75@kent.edu | Kent State University | College of Communication and Information, Journalism and Mass Communication; Digital Media Production major |
| DI Fellow | Shenava | Amrth Ashok | A | ashenava@kent.edu | Kent State University | Computer Science |
| DI Fellow | Jain | Apoorva | - | ajain15@kent.edu | Kent State University | Fashion design |
| DI Fellow | Smith | Kelsey | N | ksmit258@kent.edu | Kent State University | Biology Major, Organismal Concentration, Psychology Minor |
| DI Fellow | Yang | Ray | D | ryang9@kent.edu | Kent State University | Mechanical engineering |
| DI Fellow | Behr | Michael | J | Mbehr@kent.edu | Kent State University | Aeronautical Systems Engineering Technology |
| DI Fellow | Miskinis | Alena | M | amiskini@kent.edu | Kent State University | English (College of Arts and Sciences) and Music (College of the Arts) |
| DI Fellow | Joyner | Caleb | D | cjoyner3@kent.edu | Kent State University | Applied Engineering Technology Management |
| DI Fellow | Goodman | Delonte | E | dgoodma5@kent.edu | Kent State University | Mechatronics Engineering |
A2RU Emerging Creatives Summit:
At Kent State, we are members of the Alliance for Arts in Research Universities (A2RU). Each year A2RU hosts a student summit event called the Emerging Creatives Summit. This year the summit will be February 20 - 23rd at the University of Cincinnati. The theme is "Rise Up: Risk Something Real" and includes team-based challenge events as part of the experience. As such, I invited the new DI Fellows Program students to attend with me; and 6 of them (plus one student from the School of Art) will be attending. I am planning to use some of the funds we have raised towards the DI Fellows program to help support their hotel and travel costs; the summit (and many meals) are free once they are there. More info about the summit can be found here.
Change in Plan for DI TEAM meeting and DI HUB Tour:
Our next DI TEAM meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 21st. The original goal was to use part of that meeting time to take you all on a tour of the DI HUB, but now (see above) I will be away with many of the student fellows in Cincinnati on that day. As such, I will plan to join the meeting via Microsoft Teams, with our students who will be with me. If one of you would like to host the meeting physically on the Kent Campus, let me know; OR we could possibly try to have ALL of us join virtually via Teams and see if we can make that work...
Either way, we will reschedule the tour of the DI HUB for next Friday, February 14th at 3:30pm instead. I hope that this time will work for a large percentage of you. It will not be the only time we can do a tour, so if you can't make it, don't worry - we will schedule more in the near future. If you can make it; I look forward to seeing you there. We will convene in the construction office onsite so that we can put on our yellow vests and helmets.
DI Student Recruitment Strategies:
Since we last met, I have been working with VP Mary Parker and Vince Slomsky in student recruitment to develop strategies for determining incoming student interest in DI. We recorded a brief video segment of me in the DI REACTOR space in the HUB inviting ALL newly admitted students to get involved. The video will be sent to all students who have been admitted for next year, and will ask them to consider filling out the membership form. This way we can track how many are very interested; and can determine if it played any factor in their deciding to come to Kent State. In the video, I will tell them that if they fill out the membership form to become a student in the DI Fellows Program, then they can become eligible for scholarship funding and to be selected to enter the program as new freshmen. VP Parker has communicated that she is willing to consider 'naming' some of the freshman scholarship offers with the DI Fellows Program scholarship for those arriving in Fall 2020. (We are still working on the total number of scholarships and the amounts for each). This is very encouraging and will give us some great metrics for assessing what we are trying to do!
Fundraising Imperatives:
In the meantime, I have also been focusing on how we can better seek support of the initiative through external partnership. I met with representatives from Apple and CDW today (through assistance in the Division of IT/IS); and will be traveling next weekend with John Rathje and Manfred VanDulmen to have visioning discussions at Microsoft's headquarters in Seattle. I need your help to think about how we can scale up our fundraising efforts. If you would like to join, we have a meeting scheduled next week (Thursday, 13th Feb @10am) with VP of Advancement, Steve Sokany and team to strategize more for DI HUB naming opportunities, for how we can prepare materials/assets for the upcoming capital campaign; and how we will be linking the timing and strategic communications about the Opening Celebrations of the DI HUB with the public launch of the capital campaign during the week of September 24th, 2020.
DI Course options for Fall 20 and Spring 21:
As I mentioned previously, I have held spots for the Survey of DI NODES; Smartphone; Intro to DI; and two sections of DI CBI for Fall 2020. We are currently working on two project options for the fall CBI course sections: 1) has the working title "immersive diversity" and will focus on partnerships between Bobby Selvaggio (Jazz program) and Abe Avnisan-Nowitz (Digital Science/JMC) to integrate composition, lidar scanning, performance and extended reality tools to address how we can change the ways we perceive/experience diversity; and 2) is a novel partnership with Alpha Micron on their "Immobileyes" company concept to prevent active-shooter situations in school environments (we need faculty volunteers for this one still).
PLEASE share your ideas for Spring 21, in which we should be planning to add a DI Grand Challenge into the mix!!