Students from professor Ronah Harris' Game Design for Education & Research class (VIST 227) present their final projects in the VCAM Presentation Lounge. The Haverford community was invited to play with the games the students designed. Photo by Ella Mbanefo '26
Programs
Throughout the year HIP provides a series of extra-curricular programs and workshops with a focus on human-centered design and problem solving, developing innovation and entrepreneurial frameworks. These opportunities encourage and allow for interdisciplinary collaborations inviting exploration, discussion, testing, and iteration - skills students can use to move innovative endeavors forward.
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Building the Model
As students or groups look to paths of implementation, this workshop series addresses fundamental entrepreneurial skills and culminates with a planning document to move ideas beyond campus.
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Creative Development Intensives
Applied learning or learning by doing is a catalyst for inspiration in hands on projects and hackathons throughout the year. In addition, HIP student are encouraged to attend off-campus conferences supporting their interests in the context of innovation.
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>Innovation Paradigm Series
Collaborations with Haverford Centers and academic departments highlight innovative non-profits, social entrepreneurship, and innovation models in the Philadelphia area and surrounding community.
Past examples of programming include:
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Students learned to analyze, interpret and suggest strategy - important employee skills in any professional pursuit - whether entrepreneurial, non-profit, public or private sector.
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Within 12 hours, students mobilize around project ideas and form small teams, engaging in collaborative learning around digital technology and programming.
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Dr. Harris facilitated a hands-on intro to circuits and sewing basics and discussion around wearables past, present, and future, as well as ethics around biodata collection and usage.
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An applied learning intensive, groups tackled a sustainability challenge facing Philabundance, a local hunger relief organization.
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Tri-Co & Villanova panel of women entrepreneurs. Students engaged with guests to ask questions about entrepreneurial work, industry or for insights into their own ideas.
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Students worked on connecting to an 'Internet of Things' (IOT) gateway in order to send and receive data from across the web.
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A citizen-science event, students learned to use Zooniverse, the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.
Other events have included:
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Paper Prototyping Workshop (Co-sponsor: Maker Arts Space)
An introduction to using low-fidelity, cheap, and accessible materials to begin to explore and test ideas. -
Learning from Founders
Students both get a view into entrepreneurial and innovative work, as well as receive insights and suggested next-steps on their own proposals and interests. -
Tri-Co Startup Weekend
An immersive business start-up weekend exploring and learning an approach to the startup process with an emphasis on social impact. Teams of 6-8 members build a vision for a social impact related venture. -
Science Improv Communications Workshop
Students in the sciences explored successful and effective communication of work and goals to others through applied improvisational techniques. -
Leveraging Off-Campus Learning Opportunities
An active innovation and startup ecosystem in Philadelphia and regional areas provides off-campus opportunities specific and broad student interests.
Students have participated in:
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NYC TechStars Blockchain Startup Weekend, 2018
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Philly TechStars Startup Weekend, 2018