Bachelor of Innovation™ Overview

The Program: The Bachelor of Innovation™ family of programs is an internationally unique interdisciplinary undergraduate program between the College of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS) and College of Business (COB). Bachelor of Innovation™ (BI) is a family structure, similar to a Bachelor of Science (BS) or a Bachelor of Arts (BA), in which particular majors are defined. Included degrees (in alphabetical order): BI in Business Administration, BI in Computer Science, BI in Computer Science Security, BI in Electrical Engineering, and BI in Game Design and Development. Each degree in the program is composed of an emphasis major, an innovation core, and one of 4 cross-discipline cores.

Student Outcomes: Beyond the already expected technical depth of a UCCS Bachelor graduate, BI students emerge with a distinctive set of experiential skills. These competencies include the following: multi-year multi-discipline team experience working on real problems with local companies; an understanding and experience in the innovation process that transforms ideas into sustainable societal impact; an understanding of business basics, policy, and intellectual property; and through cross-discipline a deeper exploration of globalization issues, creative communication, and technology impact on business. The BI program will benefit both business and science/engineering students as they learn to work together to solve problems.

Components of Innovation

A common question is whether these new degrees will be competitive in the marketplace. Laying the foundation for this program, a detailed formal survey of 50 companies across Colorado was conducted. When asked if they would agree with the statement: "I would generally choose a UCCS BI graduate over a BS/BA graduate from other schools such as CU Boulder," the hypothesis was accepted at the very significant 99.95% (p=0.0005) level. When asked to agree with another statement: "I would be unlikely to hire a UCCS BI student," the hypothesis was rejected at the very significant 99.998% (p=0.00002) level. These and other questions in the survey strongly suggest that new BI degree students will be more employable than current UCCS graduates, and that the new degrees will be accepted by industry. If there a company does not currently know what the BI degree is, it is still a formal "Bachelors" degree in either engineering or business. The name of the major did not change, just the name of the family.

Meeting a National Need: In a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) report on “Educating the Engineer of 2020," the Council on Competitiveness and the Business Roundtable both conclude that teaching the innovation process and changing the education system, especially for engineering, is critical. For example, NAE states:

“Innovation is key ……… there is an undercurrent of awareness that current complexities are so daunting that tinkering at the edges — reforming one course, one program, one department at a time, developing isolated instances of success here and there — is no longer a viable response if we are to build the kind of robust programs in research and education now needed to strengthen the U.S. engineering community by 2020.”

Obviously dramatic reform in engineering education is necessary and not something we are claiming, but a nationally recognized need to which we are responding. The comprehensive nature of the proposed Bachelor of Innovation™ is directly in line with the NEA engineering 2020 guidelines. We are preparing students for the competitive environment in which they will explore their careers.

This Bachelor of Innovation™ family of programs is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program between the College of Engineering and College of Business. The Bachelor of Innovation™ is actually a family structure, comparable with a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts, in which particular majors are defined. Included Programs (in alphabetical order, click on any one to see its details)

Each major in the BI family of programs is composed of an emphasis major, an innovation core, a cross-discipline core, and the general education requirements:

The Innovation Core is 27 Credits that are geared toward innovation and entrepreneurship; a key component is multi-disciplinary long-term team activities over the sophomore, junior and senior years. Teams are expected to include students from all years, and may include graduate students. These teams have dynamic membership and team member roles will change on a regular basis. An innovation core includes courses on innovation, entrepreneurship, business and IP law, and policy. Students develop an "innovation portfolio" throughout the program that documents and highlights their roles and contributions in these various courses. This unique common core and experiential learning component are part of what makes the Bachelor of Innovation™ family so unique.

Each major also includes a per-student choice of a cross-discipline core, which is a coherent collection of 15 credits from one “cross over” area. The individual will choose this as early as possible in their program, but definitely before sophomore year.

Business Core (for non-business degrees) provides a broad coverage of business topics.

Creative Communication Core (for any BI major) provides coverage of a variety of communication modes. Courses include both traditional (e.g., oral communication) and non-traditional (e.g., visual arts) communication approaches.

Engineering Technology Core (for non-technology degrees) provides a broad coverage of engineering and technology.

Globalization Core (for any BI major) provides a selection of courses on globalization issues. It will have a language requirement (passing at the second year level) and a collection of international business/policy courses. Students in this option are encouraged to demonstrate at least 3 months residence in a non-English speaking country, which may be met by one semester of study abroad. While abroad, involvements in the Innovation team projects will be virtual but required.

UCCS is an NCA accredited university. The BI degrees have been designed to be consistent with the appropriate specialized accreditation guidelines of AACSB or ABET. The College of Business is AACSB accredited so the BI in Business carries that automatically. However, no program can be ABET accredited until the first class of students graduates and the program applies for ABET review. When approval is granted it is retroactive to the class reviewed.

Innovation Core (27 Credits)

Credits	Course	Course Title
3	Innovation Elective	Freshman Seminar or Innovation Elective (approved by advisor)
3	ENTP 1000	Introduction to Entrepreneurship
3	INOV 1010	The Innovation Process
3	BLAW 2010	Business/Intellectual Property Law
3	INOV 2100	Technical Writing, Proposals and Presentation
3	INOV 2010/2020/3010	Innovation Team: Reporting and Analysis
6	INOV 3020/4010/4020	Innovation Team: Design and Research
3	ENTP 4500	Entrepreneurship and Strategy

Cross Discipline Core - Business (15 Credits)

Credits	Course	Course Title
3	ECON 1010	Introduction to Microeconomices
3	ACCT 2010	Introduction to Financial Accounting
3	MGMT 3300	Introduction to Management & Organization
Choose two of the following:
3	OPTM 3000	Fundamentals of Operations Management
3	MKTG 3000	Marketing
3	FNCE 3050	Basic Finance

Cross Discipline Core - Creative Communication (15 Credits)

Credits	Course	Course Title
3	COMM 3440	Leadership Communication
3	Choose 1 MUS course	Music course
3	Choose 1 course from the list on the right	VA 1010 Beginning Studio 2D VA 1020 Beginning Studio 3D VA 1040 Beginning Drawing VA 2060 Two-Dimensional Topics VA 2070 Three-Dimensional Topics VA 2100 Digital Imaging VA 2110 Introduction to Photography VA 2150 Digital Photography
6	Choose 2 courses from the list on the right	COMM 1020 Interpersonal Communication COMM 2010 Oral Communication in the Workplace COMM 3280 Intercultural Communication COMM 4220 Creative Communication ENGL 2050 Introduction to Creative Writing - Fiction ENGL 3120 Technical Editing and Style MGMT 3900 Improving Presonal and Team Creativity PSY 1000 General Psychology PSY 3150 Psychology of Motivation

Cross Discipline Core - Engineering Technology (15 Credits)

Credits	Course	Course Title
9	Take 1 course from each Engineering Department (CS, ECE, MAE) from the list on the right	CS 1070 Introduction to Visual Basic CS 1100 Problem Solving Through Game Creation CS 1150 Principles of Computer Science ECE 1001 Introduction to Robotics ECE 1411 Intro to Logic Circuits I (2 credits) ECE 2411 Intro to Logic Circuits II (2 credits) MAE 1502 Principles of Engineering MAE 1503 Intro to Engineering Design MAE 3342 Engineering Economy
6	Choose 2 other engineering courses	Choose 2 other engineering courses for which you meet the prerequisites. You may choose courses from the list above or other Colleg of Engineering and Applied Sciences courses.

Cross Discipline Core - Globalization (15 Credits)

Credits	Course	Course Title
6	Foreign Language	This requirement is fulfilled by taking and passing the 2110 and 2120 courses for any spoken foreign language. Students may need to take additional foreign language courses for placement into the 2110 and 2120 courses and may need to exceed the 120 credit hours required to graduate. This requirement may be satisfied by passing a proficiency test. If a student successfully passes the proficiency test then the 6 credits must be used for additional courses from the list below.
9	Choose 3 courses from the list on the right	COMM 328 Intercultural Communication ECON 3280 International Political Economy ECON 4310 International Economics FCS 3180 German and Austrian Civilization and Culture FCS 3220 Japanese Culture and Civilization FCS 3390 Internships in Foreign Cultures FNCE 4400 International Financial Management INTB 360 International Business INTB 4610 Regional Business Environment Europe INTB 4800 International Management INTB 4960 Internship in International Business MKTG 4900 International Marketing PHIL 3090 Philosophies of Asia PHIL 4160 Business and Management Ethics PSC 1010 Introduction to Global Politics PSC 3220 Eastern Political System PSC 4130 Latin-American Political System PSC 4210 International Politics PSC 4250 International Law SOC 2220 Communities in a Global Environment SOC 4380 Globalization and Development