Curtis and Dudley Carlson Value Creation Initiative
Innovation for Impact (i4i)
We give you the skills to make a positive impact on the world.
WPI has pioneered the teaching of value creation as an essential ability for all professionals. Value creation is the process of creating solutions for unmet societal needs that provide more value to customers than any alternative and that satisfy all stakeholders. Value creation is how innovations are developed.
WPI’s project-based curriculum provides the basis for learning value creation. Graduates who master value creation are among the most valued employees throughout their careers.
What We Do
We work with undergraduate and graduate project teams, professors as part of classroom subjects, and with other WPI initiatives. Team projects are used for learning the practice of value-creation. We also work with:
· WPI faculty on R&D and new proposals
· Companies and startups
· Universities, not-for-profits, and government agencies
What You Will Learn
You will learn how to: identify problems that matter, assemble and work in productive teams, give and receive feedback, convincingly present the value of your initiative, and develop action plans for moving forward. You will learn human values that amplify creative collaboration, such as respect, inclusion, and integrity.
Meet Our Team
The Value Creation Initiative is led by Professor Glenn Gaudette with other faculty who have created world-changing innovations. Curtis Carlson was CEO of SRI International with Len Polizzotto when SRI created HDTV, Intuitive Surgical, and Siri. The team provides a unique opportunity for WPI students to learn from some of the world’s most successful innovators.
The WPI Plan
In the 1960s, the university launched the WPI Plan, a project-based curriculum built on the university’s motto, Theory and Practice, and later added Impact. Emphasizing that the goal is to make a significant positive contribution to the world, VCI offers students the opportunity to
- obtain a comprehensive education to understand the technical and scientific challenges of our world,
- complete multiple team projects to have the skills to work collaboratively in diverse, interdisciplinary teams,
- perform a global initiative to understand cultural differences and the world economy, and
- graduate with a certificate of demonstrated performance in value creation to address the pressing unmet needs of society.
