Sustainable Invention Immersion Week is a free, co-curricular program where students from different majors come together for one week to build a sustainable business model. Students will be able to apply life cycle analysis, design thinking and business model development to a wide range of sustainability challenges. Students will come away from the experience with an ability to apply these skills in many individual and team-based settings (e.g. portfolio and resume building, creative collaboration, startup development). Sustainable Invention alumni have gone on to launch startups as well as receive significant industry-focused grants.
The collaborative program is free and open to all students, from all majors (including undergraduates and graduate students). The program will provide all project materials along with two meals a day over the week-long boot camp.
2019 Less but Better Challenge:
Participants will be challenged to design a new solution to address a need that eliminates or significantly reduces the problems associated with materials. We will explore strategies to get optimal effect with minimum input. Examples include eliminating the need for a lawn mower by inventing grass that only grows 2 inches and does not need to be mowed, or eliminating a window washing system by inventing self-cleaning glass. These kinds of innovations disrupt existing solutions requiring us to think in different ways. The solution should be economically viable, socially acceptable and have a net positive environmental impact compared to existing products/processes.
Sponsors:
Sustainable Invention Immersion Week is sponsored by the UO’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry with partners from the School of Journalism and Communication, the Department of Product Design, the Department of Biology and the Center for Sustainable Business Practices.