Connecting the Tech Industry and Academia

Episode 10: Connecting the Tech Industry and Academia
As a follow up to Episode 9: Design Thinking in IT, Lou Lenzi returns to discuss Indiana University‘s School of Informatics and Computing and the department of Human Centered computing, where, as Lou states, “It’s really about humanizing data.” As a Professor of Practice, Lou leads students on a semester long course tackling real business challenges and initiatives using IoT solutions. The students in the program are working with a variety of industries; coffee, agriculture, smart cities and household fixtures, providing incredibly innovative, creative and useful solutions.
As technology advances, the nature of business changes and entire industries transform, it is absolutely necessary for academia to evolve as well. The pragmatic, hands on nature of the Interface Design and Business Innovation course provides invaluable experience to the students, additionally, industry sponsors gain valuable insights, if not applicable solutions, for creating better user experiences and new business models..
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Time Stamped Table of Contents
0:39 The Department of Human Centered Computing
3:11 Course: Interface Design and Business Innovation
6:16 How the course aligns with the realities of modern business
7:53 Independent study with Starbucks
10:44 Completed 5 week projects: agriculture, smart cities, household fixtures
13:54 Security and IoT
15:26 IoT and Senior living
18:20 Bridging the business and academic communities
19:31 Ideal parameters for an IoT project
Lou was recently honored to be named one of the Top 50 Industrial Designers over the last 50 years by the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Lou is currently working as a part-time Professor of Practice at IUPUI’s School of Informatics and Computing in the Department of Human-Centered Computing. His work is focused on aligning HCC’s graduate level curriculum with the need for strategic design leadership skills in the burgeoning Internet-of-Things (IoT) field. His coursework relies heavily on Industry-centered relationships through sponsored projects, lectures and seminars.
The Technology Leader’s Guide to Digital Transformation
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