Program Overview

Program Overview

The Innovation, Technology, and Design (ITD) program at the University of Miami offers a comprehensive curriculum that equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in the fields of innovation, technology, and design. The program is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in the principles of design thinking, creativity, and innovation, as well as the technical skills required to develop and implement innovative solutions.

Course Offerings

The ITD program offers a range of courses that cater to different interests and career goals. Some of the courses offered include:

• ITD 102: Career Foundations: Obtaining Experiences to Support Career Goals
• ITD 120: Design Challenges 1 & 2 - (Problem Identification and Scoping)
• ITD 134: Design Challenges 3 & 4 (Empathize and Design)
• ITD 199: Internship 1
• ITD 220: Ethics, Equity and Responsibility
• ITD 256: Design Challenges 5 & 6 - (Ideate and Prototype)
• ITD 270: Creativity, the Creative Process and Innovation
• ITD 295: Undergraduate Research in Innovation, Technology, and Design
• ITD 299: Internship 2
• ITD 378: Design Challenges 7 & 8
• ITD 410: Design Challenge Capstone 1
• ITD 420: Design Challenge Capstone 2

Course Descriptions

ITD 102: Career Foundations: Obtaining Experiences to Support Career Goals

This course is designed to equip students with the skills and tools needed to successfully find and obtain experiences that will support their career goals. The course includes sessions on understanding how one's interests and skills relate to careers, finding and applying for relevant opportunities, creating a personal brand and showcasing it to others, and applying strategies to be a successful applicant.

ITD 120: Design Challenges 1 & 2 - (Problem Identification and Scoping)

This course introduces students to the design thinking process and challenges them to explore a question related to a problem on campus. Students are required to refine the assigned problem to something relatively simple and tractable, and then research and propose solutions.

ITD 134: Design Challenges 3 & 4 (Empathize and Design)

This course is the second in a series of courses whereby students will employ Design Thinking methodology. It hones in on the second and third steps of design thinking: developing empathy and a point of view. It provides students with skills related to understanding and defining the social and emotional components of complex problem solving.

ITD 199: Internship 1

This course provides practical application of classroom theory through employment with firms and civic organizations offering positions consistent with programs objectives. The course introduces Project Management and it will be woven throughout the summer internship in a final project presentation.

ITD 220: Ethics, Equity and Responsibility

This course introduces mechanisms to ensure that students do not widen inequalities through digital technologies. During class exercises, students will discuss different viewpoints, understand complexities in technology transfer from one society to another, and consider the consequences of unethical uses of technology.

ITD 256: Design Challenges 5 & 6 - (Ideate and Prototype)

This course is focused on the Ideate and Prototyping stages of the design thinking process. For Design Challenge 5, students are challenged to support arts and culture organizations in developing solutions to their most pressing problems, while employing ideation techniques inspired by creative industries.

ITD 270: Creativity, the Creative Process and Innovation

This course exposes students to the theoretical frameworks of innovation and creativity. They will learn the fundamentals of and approaches to the creative process that include experiential, collaborative, and problem-based learning, associative and divergent thinking, idea generation, experimentation, and the importance of taking risks and embracing failure.

ITD 295: Undergraduate Research in Innovation, Technology, and Design

This course provides supervised research and/or design project related to Innovation, Technology & Design. ITD 102 is a pre-requisite or approval by the course instructor is required.

ITD 299: Internship 2

This course builds on Project Management and it will be woven throughout the internship in a final project presentation. All students enrolled in this course will gain practical experience and application of technical communication including written, oral and visual presentation skills.

ITD 378: Design Challenges 7 & 8

For the final two design challenges before the Capstone project, students are tasked with focusing on improving their skills within the Test and Synthesis phases of the design thinking process. The first half of the semester is dedicated to a design challenge in which students gain practice in testing their design solutions with users.

ITD 410: Design Challenge Capstone 1

This course is the first half of the culminating experience for students in the B.S. in Innovation, Technology, and Design. Students bring together all of the skills they have acquired over the preceding courses to identify a problem, task, or research project to pursue independently or collaboratively.

ITD 420: Design Challenge Capstone 2

This course is the second half of the culminating experience for students in the B.S. in Innovation, Technology, and Design. Students bring together all of the skills they have acquired over the preceding courses to identify a problem, task, or research project to pursue independently or collaboratively.

Program Requirements

The ITD program requires students to complete a series of courses, including design challenges, internships, and a capstone project. The program also requires students to develop a learning plan and complete an academic write-up of their project, in addition to any deliverables they might develop.

Career Opportunities

The ITD program prepares students for a range of career opportunities in the fields of innovation, technology, and design. Graduates of the program can pursue careers in design thinking, innovation, and technology, and can work in a variety of industries, including arts and culture, healthcare, and finance.