[Shwetak] What the MSTI, or the master’s of science
and technology innovation degree, is all about is to really provide a broad understanding
of what it means to innovate on a piece of technology.
This includes the design aspect of it.
How do you know that you're building the right thing and how you're building it right?
But also prototyping.
How do you know that the thing that you're trying to build is even feasible?
So appreciating hardware and software development so that you know that this thing can even
be built.
And then pitching it, and then getting funding for it.
So the entrepreneurial side of how do you launch a venture like this.
And so the program is designed to integrate across all three of these different areas
in an offering where a student can do it in one specific degree.
[Linda] I think increasingly, in the pace of innovation
and development in the technology fields, there's a growing expectation that any one
person has a more rounded skillset, that has some of each of those in their skillset.
And those are the professionals and the emerging students that are in more demand.
The program is a 15-month program, so you would start in the fall, go the full four
quarters and then a fifth quarter which is your launch phase.
[Shwetak] So the first 12 months is you'll be iterating
on a number of different projects, and you learn the, just the basics through these classes
and tutorials.
[Linda] Each quarter there's going to be a range of
classes from some sort of very specific hands-on studios, something maybe as specific as a
hardware-software lab or something about micro-controllers, to a design-thinking studio, which is going
to be more processed based.
[Shwetak] In the last three months of the 15-month period
is what we call the launch phase.
So you really settle on a particular project that you want to take it to the next level.
It could be that you're working on a project that's sponsored by a corporation.
It can be something where the student comes in and has their own idea, recruits students
within the cohort to help them with their project that might get them to a point where
they start to maybe spin out a company at the end of the program.
[Linda] UW has a fantastic reputation for being the
most innovative public university, which is wonderful.
There's such a great embracing and support structure here at the University, and in Seattle
more broadly, for innovation, for startups.
[Shwetak] One of the things that's interesting about
this program is not just the top faculty engaging with the students, but it's also the mentors
and the, and the technologists and the thought leaders in the Pacific Northwest.
This includes members of the venture capital community.
It includes engineers and thought leaders at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing.
[Linda] So there's a really, a coalescing of that
energy, those services, that perspective, that experience in the community here from
industry, that GIX will be able to tap into.
[Shwetak] So the MSTI is housed within the Global Innovation
Exchange.
[Linda] GIX, Global Innovation Exchange, is a unique
partnership between University of Washington, Tsinghua University and industry partners,
most notably Microsoft.
It encompasses a new type of interdisciplinary degree program that is much more team- and
project-based, hands-on, to develop a closer partnership between industry partners and
the educational experience and to really bring together kind of three different domains:
technical innovation, an entrepreneurship lens and understanding of the business landscape.
[Shwetak] And so we're looking at how do we engage the
larger community?
Not just the local community, but the global community, to create these really innovative
graduate programs that allow students to solve these real-world problems and do it in such
a way that's global in spirit.
[Linda] So I'm really excited also about the facility
that is being developed that will have maker space, and team spaces, studio facilities,
you know, be state-of-the-art in terms of technology.
It's really going to be a fantastic place for industry, faculty and students to come
and work and engage and collaborate.
[Shwetak] This program is really designed to teach people
how to become innovators.