This month at the Wond’ry, students from the Vanderbilt Innovation Fellows program partnered with Nissan North America through the Wond’ry’s Innovation Collaboration Program to explore the future of driver interface design.
      Nissan brought multiple test vehicles directly to Vanderbilt’s campus for an intensive, one-day research blitz focused on the driver experience. Working hands-on with the vehicles, students conducted dozens of rapid user interviews, synthesized insights, and presented actionable design recommendations to Nissan’s team — all within hours.  The result?  A fast-paced collaboration that demonstrates how academia and industry can work together to shape the future of mobility.

Read the full report to see what they discovered.

An event on Jan. 20 promoted one of the newest programs offered by the Wond’ry, called IMPACT (Innovation, Market-driven Productization, and Commercialization of deep Technologies).  The program initially launched in the fall semester of 2025 and has since grown to approximately 60 students. Open to Vanderbilt undergraduate students across all majors and disciplines, IMPACT offers a hands-on learning experience that allows students to design, prototype, and validate inventions across four key impact areas:

The program will launch its next cohort in Fall of 2026, with applications opening within the next few weeks.

In February, the Wond'ry Fiber Arts Build (FAB) Lab hosted the student organization KNITS from the Vanderbilt School of Medicine to host a productive scrub-cap making event for their members. The event was organized by Sage Iwamoto, a representative of KNITS, and facilitated by Alex Sargent Capps, Wond'ry FAB Lab Manager.

For individuals looking to gain experience with making and prototyping skills, the Wond'ry offers a variety of making workshops, from beginner to advanced.

It's almost that time again!  The Wond'ry will be offering an exciting variety of courses this fall in design thinking, need finding, and prototyping.  A full course list will be available in our next newsletter!

The IMPACT Program at the Wond'ry would like to extend our thanks to Wond'ry Mentors Karlo Martin and Yesenia Sevilla for supporting IMPACT this semester.

Karlo Martin served as a guest speaker for a presentation on innovation ecosystems and how value is created through relationships, infrastructure, and aligned incentives.  Karlo is also providing ongoing mentorship for one of the student project teams in the Healthcare vertical of the IMPACT Program.

Yesenia Sevilla has been providing mentorship services this semester to an IMPACT team in the Innovation Beyond Earth vertical.  During the Uncover phase of the program, Yesenia has been guiding the team during their investigations into needs, opportunities, and constraints within the space industry.

Click here to read more about the IMPACT Program.

NOTE: Wond'ry Offices and Makerspaces will be closed March 9-13 for Spring Break, but staff will be available remotely to help with innovation needs.

Offices
Monday-Friday: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday & Sunday: Closed

Makerspaces
Monday-Thursday: 1:00pm - 8:00pm
Friday: 1:00pm - 6:00pm

By making your tax-deductible gift to our Student Innovation Fund, you help us provide students with the funding they need to turn their ideas into reality. Donate here.