TCU IdeaFactory provides the environment, frameworks and resources to advance TCU students' ideas and drive creative solutions.
September 19, 2019
Stacy Landreth Grau, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation practice, is the newest director of the TCU IdeaFactory, succeeding founding director Eric Simanek. She brings an academic foundation of Design Thinking to the popular TCU program.
TCU IdeaFactory supports the innovative and creative spirit of TCU students, faculty, staff and the DFW community by providing the environment, frameworks and resources to advance ideas and drive creative solutions. In February 2019, Grau took the reigns as director alongside assistant director Cedric James. TCU IdeaFactory is a unit of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Grau remains a professor in the TCU Neeley School of Business.
Grau’s national reputation in Design Thinking will further advance TCU IdeaFactory in fulfilling its mission to connect experts, ideas and communities to empower change.
TCU IdeaFactory’s vision is to be an interdisciplinary entity offering 4 Cs: Collaboration with faculty and students to bring together multiple perspectives to solve challenges; Coaching for student projects; Courses targeted at solving big challenges; and Co-curricular opportunities to equip students to understand the problems they want to solve and design solutions to make a positive impact in their communities.
Currently, TCU IdeaFactory is working with BNSF Neeley Leaders on their impact projects and with entrepreneurial endeavors funded by the Shaddock Venture Capital Fund in the TCU Neeley Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. They also are working with students in a course in Intersectional Activism and Social Justice, and with several students who are pursuing passion projects.
“We offer a full array of workshops called the Human-Centered Design Academy and also offer coaching,” Grau said. “In December we will have our third annual TCU IdeaFactory Social Impact Design Challenge.”
In spring, TCU IdeaFactory will partner with the Alcon Career Center at TCU Neeley on pilot courses using Design Thinking to help students navigate challenges and decide on a path for their life.
