The Bachelor of InnovationTM Program is a joint effort
between the UCCS College of Business and Administration (COB) and the
UCCS College of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS). The individual
degrees are managed by their respective departments in those colleges,
with the innovation and cross-disciplinary core maintained by a
committee with faculty from both colleges. The committee is currently
Dr. T. Boult (chair) from Engineering and Dr. W. Ayen from the College
of Business. See contact page
for the points of contact for each BI degree.
The initial BI concept was developed by Dr. T. Boult, who came to UCCS
in 2003, with the vision for this new degree. The BI program as it now
exists has evolved as we at UCCS worked together internally and with
companies in our community to define a family of degrees that address
the many facets of the innovation process. We started the innovation
program work within the university, developing an initial proposal
that was broader in its scope. The broader proposal was then vetted by
local companies in 2004/2005 and we used their feedback to refine the
program to its current incarnation. Other aspects from that original
proposal, such as a planned Masters of Innovation™ (MI) program, will
be explored as soon as resources permit.
Getting the BI program approved would not have been possible without the
strong support from, and direct involvement, of Dean J. Haefner of the
College of Engineering and Applied Science and Dean V. Reddy
of the College of Business and Administration. Both Deans contributed to
the content of the program during the definition phases and kept the team
focused on moving forward. But more importantly, these Deans accepted the
challenges of pushing forward with a radical new concept during a time of
fiscal crisis. When obstacles arose, they helped find paths around them. This
level of change does not happen without leadership, luckily UCCS has leaders
that embrace innovation.
The BI in Game Design and Development (GDD) is a totally new degree and was
championed by Dr. A.T. Chamillard of Computer Science. Dr. Chamillard lead a
group of faculty including:
- Professor Valerie Brodar, Visual and Performing Arts
- Polly Cegielski, Women's Studies
- Professor Clint Fisher, Education
- Professor Bob Melamede, Biology
- Professor Sudhanshu Semwal, Computer Science
All of these individuals will continue to play a role in the BI in GDD
program. The GDD degree was developed independently of, and in
parallel with, the BI family, allowing one program to move forward if
the other stalled. Part of innovation is understanding the process by
which changes, especially more radical changes, can actually be
brought to fruition within an organization. Getting the BI approved
required our own process innovations within UCCS and the state of
Colorado. No process existed for defining a new family of degrees,
only individual degrees. It has been said that successful innovators
are the masters of "Plan B". The GDD program was originally aiming for
joint Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts degrees between EAS and the
College of Letters Arts and Science. Eventually the Bachelor of Arts
track was dropped and a pure Bachelor of Science in GDD within EAS was
defined. After both the BI Family and BS in GDD programs were approved
by the College of EAS, there was sufficient synergy that the BI in GDD
was defined in place of the original BS.
Privacy Policy
© Copyright 2006,2007. T. Boult, V.A.S.T. Laboratory, University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs
Expanding Menus:
Specific BI Degrees
Dr. Boult, one of three El Pomar Professors
at UCCS, is the visionary and champion behind the BI program. An
innovator himself he has been involved in 3 successful startups, has 5
patents, 8 pending and over $2M in research funding. His current
company, http://www.securics.com, has 3 joint projects with UCCS
employing 5 undergraduate students. His Vision and Security
Technology (VAST) lab, www.vast.uccs.edu, has a dozen projects and
employes more than a dozen undergraduates students.
