What’s Your Big Idea?—Special Spaces
The UT chapter of Special Spaces is a student organization that helps children with life-challenging illnesses by making sure they have their own special space to imagine, dream, and heal.
What’s Your Big Idea?—Getting Social Across the Nation
Karen Freberg, alumna of the College of Communication and Information and assistant professor at the University of Louisville, has the big idea to launch a social media competition for students on a national scale.
What’s Your Big Idea? Dinosaurs!
Jefferson Chapman, director of the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, talks about a really big idea–the addition of a “big,” 2,400-pound, twenty-four-foot-long bronze skeleton of an Edmontosaurus annectens, a hadrosaur (or duck-billed) dinosaur to the museum.
What’s Your Big Idea?—Garden Party
Kathy Kidd and Kathryn Humber at UT’s Early Learning Center talk about the big idea of having the children and staff grow much of their own food in an effort to eat healthier. They want the school’s new kitchen garden to be a model for the community and a training ground for early childhood educators
What’s Your Big Idea?—Knowing the Consumer
Curtis Rose, alumnus of the College of Communication and Information and senior vice president of digital strategy at Erwin Penland, has the big idea of combining consumer psychology and digital capabilities to grow your business.
What’s Your Big Idea?—Tackling Adult Illiteracy
Eighteen percent of the adult population in the US lacks a high school credential. Many go back to school to earn their General Educational Development credential, better known as the GED. Yet, half of those who teach GED programs say they don’t feel prepared to provide reading instruction. Steve McCallum, department head in education psychology
What’s Your Big Idea?—Pandora for Your Taste Buds
How cool would it be for food to taste exactly how you want it to? Andrew Foust, alumnus of the College of Communication and Information and digital business director at McCormick Spices, has the big idea of creating a mechanism to personalize spices.
What’s Your Big Idea?—Collaborative Learning
What does a classroom look like with no “front”? Stop by the Humanities and Social Sciences Building to find out. Bill Dunne, chair of the classroom upgrade subcommittee and associate dean of the College of Engineering, had the big idea of renovating classrooms to foster student-centric learning.
What’s Your Big Idea?—Making Ideas a Reality
Imagine a place where you get to convert ideas into tangible and functional prototypes. Professor Lee Martin in the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering had the big idea to start the Ideation Lab, or iLab, with his colleague, Professor Xueping Li.
What’s Your Big Idea?—Textbooks for the New Age
Did you know that a UT journalism professor is sparking an industry trend in textbooks? Jim Stovall has the big idea of converting journalism textbooks to a multimedia platform.
What’s Your Big Idea: Food as a Designed Thing
Jennifer Akerman, adjunct assistant professor in architecture, has the idea to develop an “urban food corridor” in Knoxville. Her students have been going to various places to learn a variety of urban farming techniques. Local food growing is more sustainable than industrial food systems and processing.
What’s Your Big Idea?—The PC
If it wasn’t for one UT alum, we might not have the personal computer. Mark Dean, a 1979 graduate in electrical engineering, had the big idea of developing technology that allows us to plug almost anything into computers and have the devices and PCs communicate seamlessly. Dean joined the College of Engineering faculty this fall.