Vanderbilt's Wond'ry spurs school-wide innovation
In one corner of a gleaming laboratory on Vanderbilt University’s campus, a neuroscience major pours wax into molds made with a 3-D printer to make crayon paperweights. Nearby, a mechanical engineering major works on a separate mold for a robotic arm that can gently collect coral from deep sea levels. On the floor above them, a group of arts and science and computer science students discuss a mobile cloud computing project, sitting around a sleek conference table that overlooks the West side of campus.
Vanderbilt’s innovation center, called the Wond’ry, has officially opened, welcoming students of all 10 colleges and schools to tinker, experiment, build companies and share ideas in the new, three-story facility filled with natural light. The 13,000-square-foot center is the product of five years of discussion and planning focused on spurring entrepreneurship and creativity among Vanderbilt students.
“A broad network of people from different academic disciplines can come together to work together as teams to hopefully solve big problems,” Robert Grajewski, the Wond’ry’s executive director said.
To create The Wond’ry, university leaders visited more than 20 innovation centers at universities around the U.S., including Stanford University’s Institute of Design, the Harvard Innovation Labs, Case Western Reserve University's think[box], to gather ideas and best practices. Some schools tie their innovation center to a particular school or field, whereas Vanderbilt has sought a more broad approach that includes all students.
“Not everyone sees themselves as a business person or as an entrepreneur but they might have new ways of doing things that bring up new (ways) of correcting problems,” said Grajewski, also a serial entrepreneur and investor.
The Wond'ry (wonder + foundry) has so far hosted a 36-hour hackathon that hosted 350 students from across the U.S. in a coding challenge and a competition in which teams of 150 students developed concepts aimed at helping refugee populations.
While labs and meeting rooms exist in other parts of the campus, the Wond’ry provides a spacious, upgraded facility.
“We actually have a smaller maker space in Featheringill, which is the engineering building,” said Yifan Zhu, the student working on the robotic arm. “This space is much bigger, you can fit bigger groups in here and we have these wonderful printers here that have a much better reliability and resolution.”
The biggest value is having a place where students of various majors can work side-by-side, Grajewski said. He is hopeful that interaction can help spur collaboration among those studying science, the humanities and science fields, he said.
"It's why I love working here," Tobi Shitta-Bey, the crayon-making neuroscience and public health major. "It makes me able to do different things I might not necessarily be able to do with my major."
Its entrepreneurial objectives, Vanderbilt's Tech transfer center is partnering with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center to develop students' business concepts in a seven-to-10-week course. For more promising ideas, the students will have access to additional resources and training that will support them as entrepreneurs, such as guidance on how to incorporate, hire and raise money.
Corporations will also be working with Vanderbilt students to address business challenges as part of the Wond'ry. Student teams can study an issue, work as summer interns and dedicate an independent study to solving the problems they saw firsthand.
Through its social ventures program, students are focused on solutions to land use and traffic issues, and through a partnership with Mayor Megan Barry’s office, students are working on job development ideas.
"Prior to the Wond'ry, there hasn't really been a place where all those students can easily come together in a very collaborative environment to work together on cool and unique projects, both in a structured way and in an organic way," Grajewski said.
Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_