Course Syllabus

Syllabus. Fall 2015

ENVR E-154. The Innovation Ecosystem & Sustainable Product Design

Sustainability and Environmental Management Program

Harvard Extension School

 

Instructor:     Dr. Ramon Sanchez.

Director of the Sustainable Technologies and Health Program

Director of Corporate Outreach and Strategy

Center for Health and the Global Environment

Harvard School of Public Health

 

The instructor for this course has 15 records of invention, 5 Patents in the USA and Europe and used to be in charge of industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, research & development, prototype testing and new product development for a company with hundreds of products and thousands of different models and options. His designs have been mass produced by the millions in the automotive, furniture and consumer electronic industries.

Course Website: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4090

 

Online class times: Wednesdays from 7:40 to 9:40 PM, starting in September 2.

 

Course pre-requisites: Basic math at a high school level

 

Profile for students in this course: Anyone interested in learning about the Innovation Ecosystem and applied practices for New Product Development: Students at any level, product designers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, venture capitalists, angel investors, independent inventors, small business owners, technology portfolio managers, patent lawyers, corporate sustainability professionals and policy makers.

Course Description:

This course is aimed for anyone that would like to learn how to design and launch a new product with the lowest environmental footprint. It also teaches the basics of the Innovation Ecosystem (a community of institutions, individuals and practices that foster entrepreneurship and job creation in high-technological startups at a city or regional level). Some of the Knowledge Tools and Skills that students will get are: The basic components of an Innovation Ecosystem and a clear description of how High Technology Hubs work (Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, etc.), the differences between Creativity and Innovation and how to use tools to enhance each one of these activities, the typical processes of creating and funding new businesses, what is a business incubator and how to create and operate one in any given community, what is a business accelerator and how to create and operate one of these organizations, the role of Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in the Innovation Ecosystem, new funding mechanisms based on social equity such as Venture Philanthropists, some case studies on how the Innovation Ecosystem increases economic and social development in a community, some recommendations on how to assess the level of Innovation in your community and how to create a healthy Innovation Ecosystem, how to do Market Intelligence (technological benchmarking and long-term trends in determining needs from the customer, which is NOT the same as marketing), how to identify and fight "green washing" activities, how to incorporate true sustainability in new products (or how to identify "fake" sustainability in new products), techniques to enhance creativity in adults, techniques to enhance innovation activities at all ages, how to search for patents, design around patents and write a patent (while minimizing legal costs for filing a patent), how to fund intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) by using funding from business incubators and accelerators, how to select the right materials and processes for a product in order to minimize its environmental impacts (using green chemistry principles, sustainable sourcing of materials, certifications for raw materials to promote conservation, etc.), how to do reverse and value engineering to get the most sustainable features and save costs when creating new designs, how to build and test prototypes in an inexpensive and sustainable way, how to reduce the effects of transportation and packaging in new products, how to reduce the environmental effects of the use phase of a product (electricity, fuel consumption, etc.), how to manage the new product introduction process and how to do a sustainable product launch without doing "green washing"

 

Recommended Books:

 

Maddock M. and Uriarte L. (2011). Brand New: Solving the Innovation Paradox – How Great Brands Invent and Launch New Products, Services and Business Models. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

 

Burkus D. (2014). The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas. Jossey-Bass- A Wilery Brand, San Francisco, California.

 

Goos P. and Jones B. (2011). Optimal Design of Experiments: A Case Study Approach. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom.

 

Ries E. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Crown Publishing Group, New York, NY.

 

Sawyer K. (2012). Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, 2^nd Edition. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

 

Class Schedule

 

Week 1	Sept 2	Course Logistics and basics of the Technology Innovation Process
Week 2	Sept 9	The basics of the Innovation Ecosystem and some of its main components
Week 3	Sept 16	Management of New Product Introductions: The Design Review System
Week 4	Sept 23	Market Intelligence, Reverse and Value Engineering
Week 5	Sept 30	Intellectual Property and Knowledge Management Techniques: Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks
Week 6	Oct 7	No Class (a special session on how to do a QFD will be posted this week, it will be taped in advance)
Week 7	Oct 14	Techniques to Enhance Creativity
Week 8	Oct 21	Techniques to Enhance Innovation
Week 9	Oct 28	Diplomacy and the Innovation Ecosystem. Activities that diplomatic delegations do to help companies and startups from their countries to participate in the American Innovation Ecosystem.
Week 10	Nov 4	Design for Sustainability Principles
Week 11	Nov 11	Integrating a Conceptual Design and Defining Functional Parameters
Week 12	Nov 18	Design of Experiments, Robust Engineering, Prototype Construction and Testing Practices
Week 13	Nov 25	No Class, Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 12	Dec 2	Design for Manufacturing Techniques
Week 13	Dec 9	Operational Practices for Launching a New Product
Week 14	Dec 16	No Class. Please upload your final project and final presentation in CANVAS

  

Final Project Documents and Presentations are due in Dec 16 @ 11:59 PM

Grading:

Quizzes (7)                                         – 70%

Final Project                                         – 20%

Final Presentation                                – 10%

Graduate students are expected to deliver final projects with a higher content of quantitative results (guidelines will be provided in the description of the final project)

 

Disability Services:

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Disability Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.

 

Academic Integrity:

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.