Building an Integrative Undergraduate Education: from Exploration and Discovery to Innovation and Entrepreneurship

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

The end of WWII brought incredible advances in technology and knowledge but it also sowed the seeds of a disconnected academic education in which fields became increasingly specialized (even at the undergraduate level) and a chasm developed between basic and applied research. For years as a research officer in industry and the academy and through developing research clusters, I have sought to reintegrate basic and applied research as well as create an interdisciplinary perspective, believing that necessity and hands-on experience does often drive invention and that the intersection of disciplines creates amazing opportunities for discovery while enhancing the leaps of insight that come from a broader a understanding of and an interaction with the world around us. This approach was so successful in research environments (and so inspiring to students) that I became increasingly interested in and motivated by its application to reinventing the way we teach. This presentation traces education from the first “academy” to the present day university and highlights where we may have gotten off track, what we can do about it, and the impact such a change could have on our future. At my university as a physicist and president, we are reintegrating the liberal arts around a model of project based learning and open laboratories so that students can thrive in an economy based on connectedness, multitasking, integrative discovery, and an understanding of complex systems.

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Authors

  • Alexey Feofanov

    University of Innsbruck, University of Waterloo, Korea University, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, University of California - Los Angeles, The University of Manchester, University of Puerto Rico at Humacao, Department of Physics & Electronics, University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, Department of Mathematics-Physics, Oak Ridge National Lab, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico, Electrical Engineering Department, University of Arkansas, Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, School of Basic Sciences at IIT Mandi, H.P., India, Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, Physics, Hong Kong Univ of Sci & Tech, University of California, Los Angeles, Max Planck Inst, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Univerisitat zu Berlin, Institut fur Physik, Univerisitat zu Berlin, Plymouth State University, The Graduate Center, CUNY, Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Univ of Connecticut - Storrs, Univ Stuttgart, University of Chicago, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Tulsa, California Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Universite Paris Diderot, Laboratoire MPQ, Universita di Trento, BEC Center, ICTP Trieste, Universita di Pisa, Inst of Physics Academia Sinica, Batelle, Cal State Univ- San Bernardino, Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, QCD Labs, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Yale University, MIT, Harvard Univ, Chemical & Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, University of Frankfurt, Germany, University of Hamburg, Germany, Naval Research Laboratory, Cornell Univ, National Institute for Material Science, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, Materials Engineering, University of Santa Barbara, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Univ of Texas, Arlington, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, University of Sydney, Iowa State University, Purdue University, Kansas State University, University of Maryland, John Hopkins University, Universite de Sherbrooke, Physics, Konkuk University, Perimeter Institute, University of Waterloo, D-Wave, San Jose State University, Université de Sherbrooke, Institute of Physics, EPFL - Lausanne​