The Wond'ry is a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, typically associated with a university or community setting. Its programming is designed to foster creativity, collaboration, and the practical application of ideas.
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Industry Collaboration Program (ICP)
The Wond’ry Industry Collaboration Program is designed for any business or work unit on the campus who are looking to solve their problems creatively. Led by Prof. David Owens, author of “Creative People Must Be Stopped: 6 Ways We Kill Innovation”, the program is fully customizable to meet each client’s needs and availability. The program takes the clients through the design thinking process starting with finding the right problem through empathy and clearly defining the problem and moves onto ideation sessions including brainstorming, prototyping, testing, and iteration for rapid learning and improvement. Click here to learn more.
Innovation Open Mic
The Wond’ry hosts a monthly Innovation Open Mic event, where aspiring innovators are invited to practice presenting their ideas and projects to a panel of entrepreneurial experts and mentors. Whether a business, non-profit, technology, or invention, all ideas are welcome. At the end of each event, presenters receive feedback from the mentor panel to help them improve their projects. Click here to learn more.
Internal Consulting Program
Elevate your capacity for innovation through our internal consulting program, open to all Vanderbilt work units and faculty groups. As participants engage with our program, they embark on an enlightening journey that seamlessly bridges the worlds of design thinking and practical application. Click here to learn more.
Making Workshops
The Wond'ry Makerspaces workshops are interactive, hands-on learning environments where individuals can explore, create, and innovate using a variety of tools and materials. Click here to learn more about the Makerspaces and their upcoming workshops.
Mentorship Program
Wond’ry Mentors are a network of entrepreneurs, executives, creatives, and forward thinkers eager to share their experience and insights with the Wond’ry ecosystem.
Through the one-on-one, personalized guidance of a Mentor, participants gain access to years of expertise in the fields they hope to enter, need help in, or seek to hire from. Click here to learn more.
Mid-South I-Corps Hub
Led by Vanderbilt, this hub will accelerate the translation of groundbreaking university research outcomes into commercialized ventures that seed emergent, prosperous innovation ecosystems across the Mid-south. Click here to learn more.
Sullivan Family Ideator
The Sullivan Family Ideator Program at the Wond’ry helps aspiring university-affiliated innovators (students, staff, faculty, and alumni) evaluate and develop their ideas by teaching an evidence-based approach to idea evaluation and offering expert mentorship and access to resources. Participants can receive microgrants if they demonstrate a strong commitment to their idea and its merit. Completing the program and demonstrating product-solution fit can lead to further opportunities, such as eligibility for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Program and the Wond’ry’s Builder Program.
Vanderbilt Innovation Fellowship
The Innovation Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt University is a pioneering educational initiative designed to cultivate the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. This program offers students a unique immersive learning experience that integrates real-world innovation frameworks with hands-on application. Through a meticulously crafted digital workbook, students explore a variety of innovation methodologies and apply them to actual projects sourced from across campus departments and industry collaborators.