Good ideas are like gossamer: amazing but fragile. If not recognized, they can disappear into the ether as quickly as they appeared. A new initiative at UW-Stout will help innovative ideas live for longer than a moment in time.
Launched in 2024 (a leap year), LEAPP — Leading Educational Advancement through Polytechnic Pathways — offers students, faculty and staff an outlet to fast-track innovative ideas that will help UW-Stout take a big step forward.
“At the crux of LEAPP is a culture of accessible innovation. When you have an idea, how do you get on the innovation superhighway to propel it?” said Josh Risler, a financial analyst in Business and Financial Services and LEAPP leader along with Brenda Krueger, a strategic planning specialist from Planning, Assessment, Research and Quality.
An Innovation Review Team will hold pitch competitions on campus, and innovation coaches will support development of ideas. Where otherwise an idea might float away, it will be given a full hearing through LEAPP. The first ideas could be implemented in 2025.
“Sometimes ideas are buried, and implementation may seem insurmountable. The gears of higher education can grind slowly. We want to move things through development a little faster. We’re looking at changing the rate of change,” Risler said.
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