Frequently Asked Questions

The Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Academy (i.d.e.a.) is a co-curricular program through the Office of the Chancellor and Provost at Rutgers–New Brunswick that aims to provide students with a connected ecosystem for experiencing and exploring the many opportunities for research, design, and entrepreneurship at Rutgers. Intended to complement any major of study, i.d.e.a. will provide students with a range of opportunities to explore their interests and abilities while developing the critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills that will help them design their own careers.

First-Year students can join the two-year Expeditions Fellows program. Transfer and upperclassmen can join the i.d.e.a. community through a Design for America design challenge or by participating in The Hatchery Innovation Studio events such as design labs, weekly community meetings, workshops, and more.

i.d.e.a. is designed to complement any major or course of study.

One of the goals of i.d.e.a. is to help students discover their own skills and interests and help them to identify the problems they are interested in solving. This will be achieved through research-based problem exploration, self-reflection, and academic and career coaching.

The i.d.e.a. experience does not significantly add to a student’s credit load. Instead it is designed as a foundational experience that works in close partnership with the many opportunities already available at Rutgers–New Brunswick. In the first year, the curricular experience is in the form of a one-credit i.d.e.a. Byrne Seminar. The other activities are designed to take place outside of the classroom in the form of workshops, events, and paid summer research and internship opportunities.

Absolutely! Thorough our campus partners (including the Innovation Lab with the Honors College, the Northeast I-Corps Hub, and Rutgers Business School) and our vast and engaged Alumni network, we will help you unleash your creative potential, secure resources, learn and apply business concepts, and develop and execute business strategies.

Design thinking and entrepreneurial skills are highly desired in the workforce, whether or not you plan to launch your own venture. Having a design or entrepreneurial mindset means utilizing your creativity, experience, and skills to work with others to solve problems and create new ideas. These are the same skills that you will learn in medical school, and i.d.e.a. gives you a great head start.

i.d.e.a. headquarters will be in “The Hatchery,” a centrally-located innovation studio in the Archibald S. Alexander Library on College Avenue Campus. Students will also have access to the network of maker-spaces on campus as well as the vast array of innovation and entrepreneurship programs and activities that already take place on campus.

An invitation to i.d.e.a. does not currently come with a scholarship.

Benefits of being an Expeditions Fellow include:

• experiential learning opportunities involving real-world problems,
• paid research and internships,
• early exposure to faculty researchers, alumni entrepreneurs, and employers,
• dedicated academic counseling, and
• personalized career design.