Community

Community Partner

Baldwin Wallace University Center for Innovation and Growth

The Center for Innovation & Growth (CIG) prepares tomorrow’s leaders to change their world. Students learn – and practice – skills in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. The Center’s mission is to infuse innovation and entrepreneurship campus-wide and contribute to the regional economy.

Along with several other regional organizations, The Innovation Garage® gives back and supports the CIG in several areas. We support as an advisory board member, and provide education to members of the student growth practice. This includes education events, as well as providing growth practice interns opportunities to collaborate and support our client engagements. Reach out to us if you would like to understand more about CIG.

Community Partner

Inclusioneers

The Inclusioneers Solution

At the heart of the Inclusioneers concept is the need for engineered adaptive solutions, coupled with the energy and talent of college engineering students, guided by the strength of experienced business professional engineers.

Who We AreTogether, Inclusioneers are volunteers that provide inclusive engineered solutions to help the disenfranchised enjoy the same facilities, events, and activities, that are commonly taken for granted by the mainstream population.

Through volunteer time and talent, our team helps people of all abilities engage in community programs and enjoy their natural learning environment.

Inclusioneers Purpose

The Inclusioneers organization is formed exclusively for charitable purposes. The Inclusioneers organization is purposed for the charitable mission to provide inclusive engineered solutions that (a) are ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant, (b) are designed by mentor engineers that volunteer from local businesses and student engineers that volunteer from local colleges, (c) bring accessibility to public facilities, public events and (d) provide independence and mobility to individuals with developmental disabilities, empowering people of all abilities in the Summit County community.

Inclusioneers Background

In the fall of 2015, it all started with a simple idea to bring an engineered solution to the aid of a 3 year old girl who just wanted to ride a bike with her siblings. Because she was born with a physical disability, she received support from a local board service agency, designed to provide assistance to individuals with disabilities. Through community connections between Summit DD Board, a local business engineer and the University of Akron, a volunteer effort was formed to grant a little girl’s wish.

In the spring of 2016, after the successful completion of an adaptive bike handle-bar project, additional requests for inclusive engineered solutions were met with enthusiasm. An entire class of 30 Biomedical Engineering (BME) students at the University of Akron (UA) volunteered to solve more client requests and make a positive “real world” impact on individual lives. With this expanded pool of talent, teams scaled up to accept 5 new projects.

Additionally, mentor engineers from local businesses volunteered their time, project management experience and engineering know-how to assist the UA student engineers. As a result, projects moved more quickly and teams learned to clearly define: (a) Roles and Responsibilities, (b) Communication Channels, (c) Project Procedures and (d) model a classic Project Management approach throughout the project process (i.e. Concept Reviews, Design Reviews, and Design Testing etc.).

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Community Partner
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