Innovation Faculty Ambassadors, formerly Innovation Faculty Fellows, is a year-long program focused on enhancing faculty involvement in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at URI to establish an active, collaborative network of colleagues who are motivated to integrate an entrepreneurial mindset into their teaching and research. With a rigorous structure of teaching, mentoring, participation in curricula design, and networking, they are positioned as a vital part of the URI campus and tri-state RISE UP entrepreneurial ecosystem, along with the Universities of Hawaii Manoa and Alaska Fairbanks. Innovation Faculty Ambassadors learn key techniques on how to incorporate the Lean Startup Methodology into the design of their courses and effectively teach multidisciplinary teams on tackling real world challenges through research.
The URI RISE-UP program supports Innovation Faculty Ambassadors in designing and teaching new or modified curriculum under the goals of the RISE-UP program:
- Add I&E learning elements to existing course(s). Course(s) must be offered at least once in the program cycle and twice in the three academic years following course development. With future cohorts, the goal is to extend the courses into new or existing programming.
- Meet at least once monthly during the program cycle with the Faculty Ambassador cohort to discuss progress, challenges, and strategies. Additional engagement includes ad hoc opportunities in other RISE-UP pillar programs, as well as the URI innovation ecosystem, events, guests, and speakers.
- Collaborate with the RISE-UP team on an ongoing or as-needed basis to help share your outcomes.
- Share course development and teaching experiences with other interested faculty.
- Help recruit future Innovation Faculty Ambassador candidates.
- Submit a final report to RISE-UP documenting the results of course development relative to the original proposal and the proposed teaching schedule.