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The Inventors Program empowers you and a team of fellow STEM undergraduates to turn scientific discovery into societal impact.

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 improve health outcomes or amplify the deep-rooted inequity in access and quality of treatment.

Join us in this hands-on course to explore the evolving role of AI in healthcare, with a focus on creating equitable solutions that improve race-based health inequities. No prior experience is necessary—just a passion for innovation and a desire to make a meaningful impact.

In this course, you'll critically engage with the ethical implications of AI and explore how to design systems that prioritize fairness and equity. Using human-centered design thinking and AI-driven rapid prototyping, you will tackle real-world healthcare challenges. Guest speakers will provide insights into the ethical, technological, and social dimensions of AI in healthcare, ensuring that solutions promote fairness and equity for all, especially those historically underserved.


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)
Energy Data Analytics & Machine Learning with ConocoPhillips
| Unique ID: NSC 325 50285 | T & TH | 12:30pm - 2:00pm |

Partner with data scientists and engineers from ConocoPhillips designing predictive algorithms, interactive dashboards, and analytic approaches to better monitor oil & gas production, safety features, and production capabilities. Think of it like a semester-long hack-a-thon.

Instructors & Mentorship:
Meet with Data Scientists & Engineers from ConocoPhillips! Also receive mentorship from Dr. Michael Pyrcz of UT's Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering

Project Topics:
Project challenge statements range from predicting when a rod pump might fail, to identifying next drill sites based on geological data!

Learn More:
If you want to learn more before enrolling please reach out to inventors@CNS.utexas.edu
or the professor Dr. Michael Pyrcz directly at mpyrcz@austin.utexas.edu


UGS Courses with Inventors Faculty. Get to know us early in your career.

Inventors Hosted UGS Course (Fall)
Adventure Lab: Field Research for Extraordinary Impact
| Unique ID: UGS 303 XXXXX | T & TH | 12:30pm - 2:00pm |

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.

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ARCHIVED INFORMATION


Spring 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.
H4 D Student Highlights