Program

12-month apprenticeship

Design Apprentice Program

A 12-month humanity-centered design apprenticeship to discover a problem worth solving as a multi-year endeavor.

Tuition: $25,000 for the 12-month program. See full cost of attendance

Month by month

1. 1Discovery — observation and interviews; stakeholder map
2. 2Needs — more interviews; iterate need statements
3. 3Narrowing — revisit stakeholders, field observation, need criteria
4. 4–5Solution space — three distinct prototypes evaluated against the need criteria
5. 6Need Review — formal presentation to partners
6. 7Commit — choose one concept
7. 8Prototype 1
8. 9Feasibility — plus originality and IP review appropriate to the project
9. 10Prototype 2 — provisional patent filing where appropriate, and publication draft
10. 11Dossier — publication submission (after any provisional filing); continuation proposal
11. 12Final Review

How it works

This is an apprenticeship, not a course. Professor Wang sets the direction and the standard, and the Design Apprentice does the real work: in the field every week or two, with people who live with the problem.

• Every week or two: real fieldwork with proof, such as interviews, observations and prototypes.
• Each month: a one-on-one with Professor Wang. He sends the agenda a week ahead with what to prepare, and the session is for thinking, not status updates.
• At each milestone: a formal review in front of the people the work is meant to serve. Other apprentices are welcome to attend.

What is expected of apprentices

• Submit a publication to an appropriate venue
• Build an Institute-hosted dossier that includes the documented prototype and both recorded formal presentations (the Need Review and the Final Review)
• Complete the program and earn a completion certificate from the Institute
• Where appropriate to the project, file a provisional patent

Ongoing apprenticeship

Emerging Scholars Program

A year-by-year apprenticeship that carries one project from a validated need toward real-world deployment.

Tuition: $25,000 per year, renewed yearly. See full cost of attendance

The apprenticeship is renewed each year based on real-world progress, such as a community partnership or a deployment. Renewal is not automatic.

Each year

• A plan that Professor Wang approves at the start
• Weekly or biweekly work on the project
• Monthly one-on-ones with Professor Wang
• Two formal reviews, mid-year and year-end
• An updated dossier

Tracks

• Venture. Building a company or organization. Professor Wang advises through formation, pilots and early funding.
• Research. A study aimed at peer-reviewed publication or another public research output.
• Invention. Developing the actual invention beyond a provisional and filing a utility patent by the end of the year, with a registered patent attorney.

What is expected, by track

• Venture: deploy a project or venture
• Research: publish the work
• Invention: file a utility patent by the end of the year, with a registered patent attorney

Entry

• From the Design Apprentice Program. Design Apprentices may be invited to continue as Emerging Scholars based on the strength of their year-one work, their progress through the milestones, and a continuation proposal reviewed with Professor Wang. No second interview is required.
• Directly. People who are nominated, or who self-nominate, directly into this program go through a rigorous interview with Professor Wang, by invitation, and must demonstrate a clear design process on the project they bring.