Courses & Faculty

Ideas Challenge courses are a network of experiential classes being developed at UWM to integrate entrepreneurial thinking into the existing curriculum and strengthen themes of creativity and innovation.

Our Ideas Challenge Faculty Fellows are just some of UWM’s most innovative instructors helping transform the educational experience for UWM students. Check out course offerings below:

My Major As Consulting Startup Or Professional Practice

Taking your major (whether it is in Arts, IT, Engineering, or Health Sciences) to the next step into a consulting company or a professional practice is a skill honed in this class. Writing your “Launch Playbook” as part of this course, you’ll acquire the skills needed to Launch, Grow, and Sustain a Professional Practice or Consulting Company.

Offerings

ART-524 / Professional Practice / J. Dietenberger

Instructor

J. Dietenberger

Product Realization

Product Realization courses teach students how to design, test, and produce prototypes for companies that offer mentorship and funding. Industries like Aurora Healthcare, Eaton Corporation, and Biz-starts, are just some of the local industries that have participated in the course.

For more information, visit the website.

Offerings

ART-405
COMPSCI-678
IND ENG-405
MECH ENG-405

Instructors

Ilya Avdeev, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Avdeev is the Director of Innovation at LEC, founding director of the Advanced Manufacturing Design Laboratory, Co-founder of the Student Startup Challenge, Co-PI of the Milwaukee I-Corps Program, and Kellner Entrepreneurship Fellow.
Nathaniel Stern, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Art and Design, Head of Digital Studio Practice, Director, SSC

Dr. Stern is an artist and engineer as well as the Director/Co-Founder of the UWM Student Startup Challenge. He has produced and collaborated on projects ranging from interactive and immersive to prints and sculptures.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking teaches students how to navigate ambiguity, learn from others, synthesize information, and experiment rapidly between concrete and the abstract. Students will learn how to build and craft prototypes as well as communicate deliberately through the design process and work.

Offerings

ME-809

Instructors

Ilya Avdeev, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Avdeev is the Director of Innovation at LEC, founding director of the Advanced Manufacturing Design Laboratory, Co-founder of the Student Startup Challenge, Co-PI of the Milwaukee I-Corps Program, and Kellner Entrepreneurship Fellow.
Nicole Green

Program Coordinator, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center

Ms. Green promotes entrepreneurial and innovative thinking across campus by regularly collaborating with professors to bring hands-on workshops, highlighting entrepreneurial and design thinking, to their classrooms.

Computer Aided Engineering Laboratory

Computer Aided Engineering Lab incorporates state-of-the-art CADD, kinematics, and FEA computer tools to build upon mechanical design and analysis skills from previous classes with the goal of designing a product that can be brought to market.

Offerings

ME 101

Instructor

Andrew Dressel, Ph.D.

Lecturer, CEAS

Dr. Andrew Dressel is a UWM lecturer of Mechanical, Civil, and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on bicycle and motorcycle dynamics as well as mechanical properties of bicycle tires.

Scientist Career Transitions

Scientist Career Transitions is designed to enlighten science undergraduates as they transition to employment in science-oriented industries by exploring topics that help translate academic learning to initial employment, job success, and career development.

Offerings

CHEM 690

Instructor

Douglas Stafford, Ph.D.

Director, Milwaukee Institute of Drug Discovery

Dr. Douglas Stafford is the founder of the Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery. He has over 25 years of experience in the biomedical industry with executive position in operations.

Design & Visual Communication

Design and Visual Communication focuses on the creative process through an entrepreneurial, professional, and cross-disciplinary practice in design and related fields. The curriculum includes coursework in strategy and design process, design methodologies and research, portfolio development, web and multimedia design, and design entrepreneurship.

For more information, visit the website.

Offerings

ART-422

Instructors

Kim Beckmann

Co-Area Head & Associate Professor of Design & Visual Communication

The Design & Visual Communication Program inspires students to bring entrepreneurship into the arts. The course culminates with the UWM Design Entrepreneur Showcase exhibition that features innovative products and services developed around different themes.
Adream Blair

Co-Area Head, Associate Professor, Design & Visual Communication, Associate Professor, Digital Fabrication & Design

Adream Blair teaches participatory research methodologies and principles of universal design to engineering, health sciences and design students in a cross-disciplinary classroom.

Performing Communities

Performing Communities explores the development of communities through cultural and performing practices by creating community-based work in the arts. This course teaches students how to collaborate with community partners in order to identify social change goals and learn skills to facilitate change.

Offerings

THEATRE-320

Instructor

Anne Basting, Ph.D.

Professor of Theater, Artist in Residence Program Coordinator

Dr. Basting is an educator, scholar, and theater artist whose work over the last 15 years has focused on encouraging community engagement, intergenerational connections, and enriching the lives of elders through long-term care embedded with cognitive art projects.

Electronics & Sculpture

This production class focuses on technologies and aesthetics that incorporate electronics, sensors, motors, physical animation, and other devices into contemporary art and design projects. Students learn programming, kinetics, analog and digital input and output, and communication between computers and micro-controllers.

Offerings

ART-318(undergrad)/418(grad)

Instructor

Nathaniel Stern, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Art and Design, Head of Digital Studio Practice, Director, SSC

Dr. Stern is an artist and engineer as well as the Director/Co-Founder of the UWM Student Startup Challenge. He has produced and collaborated on projects ranging from interactive and immersive to prints and sculptures.

Gizmos & Gadgets

This course introduces students to the history, depth, and breadth of assistive technology and universal design through a combination of direct instruction and individual exploration.

Offerings

OCCTHPY-220

Instructor

Michelle Silverman, MS, OTR

Professor of Occupational Therapy, Coordinator of Assistive Technology & Adaptive Design

Michelle Silverman, MS, OTR, is Professor of occupational therapy and coordinator of assistive technology and adaptive design at UWM. She instructs the course through the use of internet resources, print resources, and guest speakers.

Infopreneurship

This course provides students with the skills and knowledge to identify potential business ideas centered on information while developing business plans to secure funding.

Offerings

INFOST-691

Instructor

Shana Ponelis, Ph.D

Assistant Professor, Information Studies, Member, Association for Computing Machinery, Association for Information Systems

Dr. Ponelis is Assistant Professor of Information Studies and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and Association for Information Systems. She focuses on empowering people to make informed decisions concerning themselves, their organization and their society as a whole.

Innovation & Commercialization

Students focus on the basics of innovation and commercialization as well as “Lean Launch” methodologies that are used in early stage business formation to help develop specific skills that are useful in engineering and technology ventures.

Offerings

CIV ENG 691
COMPSCI 657
ELECENG 490
IND ENG 590
MATL ENG 690
MECH ENG 490

Instructor

Brian Thompson

Director, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, President, UWM Research Foundation

Mr. Thompson is the Director of the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, Co-PI of the Milwaukee I-Corps Site, and President of the UWM Research Foundation. He also teaches new ventures as an adjunct instructor in UWM’s College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Lubar School of Business.

Entrepreneurship for Healthcare Professionals

Entrepreneurship for Healthcare Professionals teaches entrepreneurial thinking skills that are necessary for healthcare managers while receiving hands-on experiences through developing business ideas into marketable products.

Offerings

Instructor

Priya Nambisan, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chair, Health Sciecnes

Dr. Priya Nambisan's research focuses on broad areas of marketing and organizational communication, social media, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Her work has been published in premier journals such as MIT Sloan Management Review and the Journal of Business Research.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Study the creation, growth, or acquisition of business through entrepreneurial efforts. Students develop their own ideas into effective business models and strategies that ultimately lead to increased management skills and positive management succession. Topics include methods of financing, venture capital, leveraged buy-outs, and acquisitions.

Offerings

BUS ADM-447

Instructor

Jim Hunter III

Bostrom Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Mr. Hunter is Bostrom Entrepreneur-in-Residence and has taught entrepreneurship courses at the Lubar School of Business since the mid-1990s. He is the president of three companies, CFO of one company, vice president of four companies, and director of nine companies.