The mission of the University of Florida Engineering Innovation Institute (EII) is to foster a culture of innovation among Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering students, faculty, and staff. The Institute serves as a nexus of engineering innovation education and experiential programs extending across the spectrum of creative discovery and invention, to the transition of UF engineering technologies and innovative students to the marketplace. The Institute produces leaders with engineering and innovation skills to attack the world’s most daunting problems and change the world.
The Institute’s primary program elements are Creativity and Entrepreneurship built on the foundation of the College’s research programs, both of which support the goal of creating the New Engineer.
- The Creativity element develops innovative thinking in our constituents, providing invaluable skill sets when combined with the analytical and problem-solving skills inherent in our engineering education and research programs.
- The Entrepreneurship element focuses on dovetailing technology with entrepreneurial education programs and is designed to bring commercialization focus and direction directly to the breadth and depth of the College’s research programs, ingraining entrepreneurial thought processes in engineering students and faculty.
The Institute is focused on high-value outcomes and is designing programs to assure students, faculty, staff, the university, and external stakeholders are impacted in a real and deep manner.
The Institute’s curriculum, dovetailed with the UF Engineering Leadership Institute coursework, includes courses taken by over 1,600 UF engineering students annually in:
CERTIFICATE
The Innovation Certificate is offered to both graduate and undergraduate students with core themes involving the study of innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and ethics. This certificate develops a comprehensive skill set that is applied in innovation-driven enterprises and within larger organizations.
MINOR
The Innovation Minor provides the academic background for graduates to think more creatively, innovatively, and entrepreneurially. Graduates are more rounded with innovation skill sets that enhance career advancement opportunities, either for employers or in their own entrepreneurial pursuits.
Innovation Fellows
Innovation Fellows, a joint program between the University of Florida’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and Warrington College of Business, takes a select group of undergraduate students from the two colleges, has them form interdisciplinary teams and guides them through a 15-18-week program focused on pursuing the development of a project or technology. The program culminates in a visit to Silicon Valley and a presentation of the project summary to the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering West Coast Advisory Board.
The Innovation Fellows Program opened doors to people and companies that I had only dreamed of meeting and visiting. It also allowed me to grow as an individual and expand my communication skills by working with a diverse group of leaders that were experts in their own field. Overall, the program gave me essential skills that will help me in my future entrepreneurial ventures.”
—Maxim Davis, 2018 Participant
