Professor Edward Wang founded the Wang Institute for Emerging Scholars to train a small number of exceptional students to take on real problems and make a lasting difference in the world.
Why the Institute exists
A culture of résumé-building has taught talented students to move quickly from project to project: a few weeks here, a summer there, each one a line to list. AI has deepened the problem. Prototypes and findings that once took months can now be produced in an afternoon, and it has never been easier to look accomplished without going deep.
What the world needs, and what is becoming rare, is the capacity to choose one problem worth solving, understand it among the people who live with it, and stay with it for years until the work truly serves them. The Wang Institute exists to train young people in that kind of deep, persistent, humanity-centered work, through true apprenticeship with Professor Wang.
What we look for
We look for students who keep noticing things in the world and cannot let them go. Students who will choose one real problem and stay with it for years, leave their room to understand it firsthand among the people who live with it, and take it apart piece by piece when asked.
We look for students who will own the work: the problem, the partnerships and the decisions. They take direction from Professor Wang and hold themselves to a standard he would put his name on. What we look for is persistence, and the willingness to do the work well.
Admission is by nomination or self-nomination, followed by an application and a rigorous interview with Professor Wang, by invitation.
What we’re building toward
People trained in humanity-centered design do a different kind of work. They start by unearthing the real problems people face, not the ones that are easy to assume. They prototype and iterate in the right direction, and they evaluate honestly whether a solution truly serves the people it was built for. Over time, they lead teams that work this way and create solutions that last.
In a world where AI makes it easy to produce a lot quickly, that foundation matters more than ever. Anyone can generate an answer. Knowing which problem is worth solving, which direction to build in, and whether the solution actually works is what will set the next generation of leaders apart. That is what we train.
Stay informed
Nominations are not yet open. To hear when they are, join the interest list with your name and email. You will then be asked to complete a short interest form, with an optional portfolio.