Courses

What is a breakthrough invention? How do you make or recognize one? How is it different from innovation? Today's entrepreneurs, technologists, and business professionals face critical challenges across various industries, including health and wellness, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high tech, and finance. Although these problems require breakthrough inventions in technology and business models, most inventions go nowhere, leading to losses in talent and capital.

In this course, we will use time-tested principles, case studies from multiple industries, and a variety of perspectives to help you learn how to avoid costly mistakes and convert an initial insight into a world-changing breakthrough. We will identify problems whose solutions can elicit new systems, processes, and business models. We will learn to recognize high-value challenges and convert them into scalable solutions. We will study advanced brainstorming methods, practice using tools for solving the "innovator's dilemma," and generate testable hypotheses. The course will culminate in an invention workshop where students practice their newly learned skills to solve real-life problems. Further, we will discuss business strategies for protecting your solutions, especially in the early stages of development.