Practicums are open to everyone - no prior experience or application required - just a passion for innovation and a desire to make a meaningful impact.Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 Practicums:If you want to learn more before enrolling please reach out to inventors@CNS.utexas.edu or the professor directly at Charlee.Garden@utexas.edu.Inventors Practicum: (Fall and Spring) Health Outcomes, AI & Equity | Unique ID: NSC 325 50280 | T & TH | 11:00pm - 12:30pm | The intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare holds immense potential—to transform patient outcomes and address longstanding gaps in access and quality of care. Join us in this hands-on course to explore the evolving role of AI in healthcare, with a focus on building responsible solutions that help address barriers to care. No prior experience is necessary—just a passion for innovation and a desire to make a meaningful difference. In this course, you'll examine the ethical dimensions of AI and learn how to design systems that meet the needs of patients across different backgrounds. Through human-centered design thinking and AI-driven rapid prototyping, you'll address real-world healthcare challenges. Guest speakers will offer insights into the ethical, technological, and social aspects of AI in healthcare, helping ensure solutions are thoughtful, representative and grounded in real-world impact. Inventors Practicum (Spring) Food Systems & Sustainability | Unique ID: NSC 325 | T & TH | 2:00pm - 3:30pm | Join us in this hands-on course to co-create sustainable solutions for Texas’ food system. In Austin alone, 1.24 million pounds of food are wasted daily, while 14.4% of residents face food insecurity. We believe there’s real potential to make a lasting, positive impact on our food system. No prior experience is necessary—just an open mind and a commitment to making a difference. You'll dive into the Texas food landscape, utilize innovative problem-solving frameworks like human-centered design thinking, harness AI for rapid prototyping, and develop valuable communication and teamwork skills. Guest speakers will share their expertise on sustainability and the challenges facing the Texas food system. If you want to learn more before enrolling please reach out to inventors@CNS.utexas.edu or the professor directly at Charlee.Garden@utexas.edu. Inventors Practicum (Fall) UGS Courses with Inventors Faculty. Get to know us early in your career.
Forget lectures—this is learning by doing. In The Adventure Lab, you’ll spot hidden opportunities in the world around you, take bold action, and experiment your way to meaningful impact. Whether you’re prototyping new ideas, collaborating on big challenges, or flipping assumptions on their heads, you’ll walk away with skills, habits and a mindset built for innovation, adaptability, and change. Experiential adventures will include riffing on teamwork with a local Austin jazz band, drawing inspiration from the NYT 10-Minute Art Challenge, and shifting your perspective—literally—at Dining in the Dark. Scientific Innovation & Design | Unique ID: UGS 303 68040 | M & W | 3:30pm - 5:00pm Explore design thinking to create real-world assistive technology for local students with physical disabilities. Through hands-on learning experiences in the classroom plus access to the new CNS MakerSpace, you’ll turn your ideas into working solutions that make a meaningful public health impact. No prior experience is needed and novices are welcome. This is an introductory course in design and innovation, where you'll learn the basics of prototyping, 3D printing, programming and electronics. ========================================================ARCHIVED INFORMATIONSpring 2025 Further Opportunities for Practicum Students:Advanced Research Experience - course credit for continuing your practicum research project Join the Inventors Program in Spring 2024
Are you wondering if you should become an Inventor? Please watch this video HERE from some of our past students explaining how they became Inventors! Spoiler Alert: You will make a great Inventor! : ) Spring 2024 Practicums:Scientific Ventures: Turning Research into Reality| Unique ID: NSC 325 46510 | T & TH | 12:30pm - 2:00pm | This practicum teaches students lean startup and product design and exposes them to real-world customers, users, and problems. This course introduces the pathway from scientific research to real-world innovations. Learners will delve into methodologies such as the lean startup, explore professional communication, team dynamics, and career readiness in the entrepreneurial context. Guest speakers will provide insights into the entrepreneurial ecosystem, supplemented with reflections on intellectual property and its role in scientific innovations. |
