Move Fast and Collaborate
The College of Innovation and Design (CID) is focused on developing both physical and digital products, services and outcomes based on identifying and solving problems collaboratively and quickly. We don’t mess around, after just 30 hours of courses you should have the skills necessary to create, develop, launch and repeat for your own ideas or apply your digital and innovation skills working inside an organization.
The College of Innovation and Design (CID) involves partnerships between all of WSU’s degree granting Colleges. We admit students with various backgrounds, but most are very strong in a specific area, such as tech, manufacturing, or design. We team them in diverse groups to strengthen their adaptability to the demands of the ever-changing digital workforce.
Innovation and product development processes are taught to help students gain understanding, discover insights, recognize opportunities, and create transformative solutions for complex problems. Curriculum focuses on design thinking and agile methodologies, and strategies to enhance skillsets of creativity, critical thinking, decision-making, communication, product development and management, and leadership.
The Masters of Innovation Design (MID) degree is 30 credit hours, typically spread over two years. 12 of the 30 credit hours can come from ‘applied learning’ or ‘innovation in practice’, which creates an opportunity for unique collaborations as you develop a product or startup idea. We give credit for accomplishments – our own metric for student success. Our courses range from 8 weeks to 16 weeks in length and most are available in the evening so you can maintain current employment while completing your degree.
Our experiment-driven active learning approach creates structure and process to the chaos that characterizes the early stages of creative pursuits and startups. The curriculum currently has three required courses and the remainder of the program is individualized to assist the student develop as an innovator in their specified area. Students can work with faculty they have identified that can further develop their strengths or weaknesses. They are encouraged to take advantage of the expertise and resources available at Wichita State University to develop ideas and work to bring them to market. MID students also have the ability to work with one of the many research clusters on campus that have intellectual property based on faculty research.
Additionally, university faculty, local start-ups, and/or corporations have the opportunity to tap the MID talent to help bring their research to a stage that can be commercialized.
We’re here to help students be successful. Our developmental advising model used in the MID Program helps students understand and articulate their talents, find what engages their passions, and discover what gives purpose to their lives. It leads to selection of majors and other academic offerings, choosing co-curricular and extracurricular activities that promote their individual goals, leadership development, and preparation for meaningful careers. Advising is aimed at personal development, therefore blending connections that are often the responsibility of faculty mentors, academic advisors, and career advisors and counselors.
If generating ideas, collaborating with others, and moving fast is what you are looking for, we can’t wait to talk with you. Apply now!