Strategic Plan

 Operational Center

The operational center of DICE will be based in the Mechanical Engineering Department.  The director will be a member of the Mechanical Engineering Department.  Two Associate Directors will be from the Mechanical Engineering Department.  The Center will be initiated and led by Dr. E. G. Keshock (Director), with Dr. J. Sawicki, and Dr. J. Frater acting as Associate Directors. 

Development of Synergies/Partnerships/Collaboration

Part of the responsibilities of the Center Directors will be to create synergies and complement activities of agencies and organizations such as the following: 

1. CSU College of Business
2. CSU College of Urban Affairs
3. CSU College of Arts and Sciences
4. Cleveland Clinic Foundation
5. Akron General Medical Center
6. MAGNET (especially re product development activities)
7. City of Akron’s Invention Center
8. Cleveland Institute of Art
9. Lorain County Community College Entrepreneurship Innovation Institute
10. Baldwin-Wallace College Center for Innovation and Growth
11. Great Lakes Science Center
12. NASA
13. Wright Center (Dayton)
14. Edison Centers, State of Ohio
15. Battelle Institute, Technology Transfer Office, Cleveland

                                                                                                                                  
Responsibilities of the Associate Director and Mr. Terrell Pim, of Systems Technology Research Institute  will include:

1. Establishing relationships with the above and similar institutions to achieve the goals and objectives of DICE.
2. Seeking and identifying design projects from regional companies, medical facilities, national laboratories, etc.
3. Identify and seek potential sources of funding for support of all project activity described/defined herein.
4. Advise Center Directors and Advisory Committee of results and progress obtained re the above.
5. Advise Center Directors and Advisory Committee of methods for efficient management of project activities and reporting those results/accomplishments.
6. Advise Center Directors and Advisory Committee regarding implementation of entrepreneurial courses, graduate student internships/assignments, and international internship program.
7. Organize and participate in summer outreach programs.
8. Develop specific plans for implementation of year-round outreach programs to high school and elementary school students, and participate in such outreach programs if and as necessary.

These advisory/planning activities will be presented to Center Directors on a continuing basis and at least once each term to the Advisory Committee.

            The entire operation of the Center will be reviewed by the Advisory Committee, Dean of the College of Engineering, Director of Technology Transfer, and the Provost’s office annually. 

Facilities and Organization of Center

All present senior capstone design courses in the College of Engineering will serve as a (renewable) basis and starting point for the Center’s productivity.  Design/ innovation teams will be centered in engineering departments, as per current practice, but perhaps involving members from other departments within the College as required.  The nature and scope of the project may even involve or require faculty/students from other Colleges of the university, as appropriate or required.  No modifications to the curriculum of all departments within the College of Engineering are required.  

The Center will have an advisory board, meeting formally, prior to each semester (at minimum).  The advisory board will consist of the faculty member from each department of the College who will be directing the senior design activity in that department during a given semester (in the case of Electrical Engineering, three faculty members currently teach a separate design course).  Additional academic advisory board members will consist of faculty members from other departments and colleges of the university who will have students participating in design team activity, e.g. the Colleges of Business and Science, or who have an active interest in participating in such design, innovation, product development, and entrepreneurial activity.  Other advisory board members will consist of representatives of companies submitting and supporting project activity, or from companies having a strong and active interest in participating and supporting project activity.  

College and department laboratories and other facilities may be made available to project team members via formal written request in the department in which the facilities are located.  This does not represent an allocation of additional resources or space, but rather would be essentially a continuation of continuing practices within each department. 

Initially, the Center Director, with input and assistance from Associate Directors and Advisory Board members will solicit project activity from companies and institutions in the Cleveland area, NE Ohio, and elsewhere.  Immediate efforts will be made to also obtain funding from local, state and governmental agencies for expansion and operation of the Center and its design/entrepreneurial/ innovation activities. 

Education and Outreach

The potential for exciting and motivating community outreach programs is essentially unbounded.  The creative and innovative activities of engineering students within the Center can be the basis for motivating young students from Cleveland and the entire Greater Cleveland area.  Whether by visits to campus, one- or two-week on-campus design/innovation programs, or via demonstrations of designs and concepts supervised by science teachers in the primary/secondary school system, the opportunities are nothing less than electrifying – both for students, faculty, and the entire community. 

Additional opportunities abound.  For example, periodic educational programs can be conducted in cooperation with the Great Lakes Science Center, NASA, the Cleveland Institute of Art, other institutions in the University Circle area, or elsewhere throughout the Cleveland-Akron area.  .

In addition to campus visits of interested elementary and high school students of science, multiple programs of two-weeks (or longer) duration, can be organized and conducted with local students, with perhaps the only limitation being that of availability of funding.   Similar summer programs have previously been conducted in the past through the ACE (Access to Careers in Engineering) program at CSU. 

One community venue for the display of innovative design projects conducted by CSU capstone design students is the Ingenuity Festival (July 19-22) in which thousands of Clevelanders come to the Playhouse Square area to observe and participate in a myriad of creative and innovative displays and activities, respectively.  Many student design teams from across the College of Engineering have displayed, explained and demonstrated the results of their design activities during the 2006-2007 academic year. 

In all of the preceding outreach activities one of the underlying objectives will be to publicize and enhance the prestige of the educational programs at Cleveland State University.