After two years of connecting people, programs and disciplines in support of innovation, Emory’s student innovation center, The Hatchery, is offering two new programs to support inspiring connections — The Emory Innovation Engine and The Innovation Speaker Fund.
“Our mission at The Hatchery is to empower innovators to do the good things they want to do. With these new programs, we’re adding more support for students and those who design programs for students,” says Shannon Clute, director of The Hatchery.
The Emory Innovation Engine
The Emory Innovation Engine is a grant program and short workshop series open to faculty, staff and students who are developing programs for Emory student innovators and entrepreneurs. The program provides those interested in creating innovative programs in all schools and disciplines with up to $2,500 in funding and support from The Hatchery's staff and student Innovation.
“We’re excited about faculty and staff innovators across campus. This is a chance to gather those who care about innovation but may be from different parts of campus. The combination will be really powerful,” says Ben Garrett, manager of programs and operations at The Hatchery.
The Hatchery offers a modern, Google X-styled facility that is highly-configurable and provides drop-in working space.
One example of the type of project The Hatchery is hoping to support with the Emory Innovation Engine is Calliope’s Cabinet, a collaboration with Emory Libraries that creates short videos about innovation-related artifacts, Garrett says. The videos can be used in a variety of settings to encourage students to break traditional thought patterns and consider different approaches.
The first Calliope’s Cabinet video showcases “De Humani Corporis Fabrica,” the first detailed book of anatomy published in 1543. One of the first editions published is housed in Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library. The book’s author, Andreas Vesalius, caused controversy by breaking with church doctrine and dissecting human cadavers to correct long-held misconceptions about human anatomy.
“We’re always looking for ways to surface innovation in a way that’s different. What innovations came after this? How was the approach innovative?” Garrett says.
Renee Dye, associate professor in the practice of organization and management in Goizueta Business School, says working with The Hatchery has been very beneficial to her classes and students and suggests that faculty from all over campus — whether they’re in nursing, liberal arts or business — could benefit from innovation-related programs.
“It doesn’t matter what field of research you’re in these days. All things are about innovation and innovation in programs of research. Faculty could partner with The Hatchery to advance the state of research in their own fields and encourage students to be as innovative in their projects in anything they undertake,” Dye says.
The Innovation Speaker Fund
The Innovation Speaker Fund, open to faculty and staff, provides funding to bring innovative speakers to Emory’s campus. The speakers will discuss innovation in their fields and share the innovative work they are doing to inspire students.
The Hatchery offers event space, promotional support and up to $1,000 to help bring innovators from a variety of fields to Emory's campus for conversations that inspire the entire Emory community.
This initiative grew out of conversations with faculty and staff who were interested in inviting more interdisciplinary speakers to campus, who are helping innovate within their discipline, and positioning them so that they’re accessible to the broader Emory audience, Clute says.
“We want to diversify the innovation tool kit Emory community members have at their disposal,” Clute adds.
Emory innovators are invited to apply here for the Innovation Engine or here for the Innovation Speaker Fund or suggest innovators they think could benefit from these programs. To recommend another innovator, contact thehatchery@emory.edu.