A group of Arkansas Tech University students believe they have the skills and education necessary to create a meaningful solution. Now they just need some help identifying the most worthwhile problem.
The ATU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the ATU Department of Campus Life will host an event entitled MIND Games at the W.O. Young Building Ballroom from 2-5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25.
MIND stands for Multidisciplinary Idea generation for New product Development. The initiative began with discussions between Dr. Judy Cezeaux, dean of the ATU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the student advisory council representing each department in the college.
“The original goal of the event was to get students from the diverse programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to communicate and work together,” said Cezeaux. “With the co-sponsorship by the Department of Campus Life and the addition of this event to the On Track program, we have broadened participation to the entire campus community. No problem in the world today can be solved by individuals in a single discipline. We hope that events such as these can be a model of multidisciplinary collaboration that will benefit students in their professional life.”
Cezeaux said that Christopher Caveney, a senior emergency management major from Blytheville, was one of the primary proponents of the event.
“The event is directly related to the ‘where innovation thrives’ part of the university vision statement,” said Cezeaux. “This event will provide opportunities to potentially turn innovative ideas from the entire campus community into actual products using the educational experiences of the capstone projects in computer and information sciences and engineering. We hope that some of these ideas may eventually turn into commercial products on which to form companies in the Arkansas River Valley.”
