Design Jams

Generate ideas to address the world’s most pressing problems in a fun and engaging atmosphere

Using our extensive network of partners we convene students and faculty for collaborative brainstorming activities geared towards generating solutions for the world’s troubling problems. These can take the form of full-day events, charettes, and workshops. Take a look at what we’ve done in the past few years:

• For instance, the Center for Social Engaged Design, the Problem Solving Initiative, and the U-M School of Information partnered with us to present an invitation-only design jam on the subject of payday lending.
• We also invited twenty-five global leaders — including entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, business leaders, and academics — to Ross to catalyze transformational ideas for the impact economy in an event we called “Innovation for Impact Beyond Shareholder Value.”
• In sessions run by Keesa V Johnson, students learned how to use prototyping as a tool to generate ideas, validate concepts or explore technologies using food futuring to cultivate imagination.
• The University Musical Society and the +Impact Studio included Wynton Marsalis in a design jam on innovative uses of new tools and design methods to generate new formats and equitable access to the arts.
• The +Impact Studio at Michigan Ross in partnership with the U-M Global CO2 Initiative and the Erb Institute offered an innovative workshop in which students will use design thinking methodologies to create business models for carbon capture and utilization technologies.