Classes
Introduction
In our classes you’ll learn how to research problems, develop creative solutions, and bring ideas to life through prototyping and iteration. Whether you're interested in technology, business, healthcare, or social impact, these classes will help you think critically, collaborate effectively, and create meaningful solutions.
Interdisciplinary Solution Development - IXD
IXD is an interdisciplinary course where students collaborate with a corporate partner to provide solutions for a real-world industry challenge. Problem statements are provided by the corporate partner and focus in complex areas within their domain such as healthcare, retail, or technology. During the course, students will go through cycles of the design process and present their findings in a formal midterm and final presentations to the partner.
IXD is a cross listed course and includes the following course numbers:
- DES 420/421
- ANTH 494
- IE 444/4445
- ME 444/445
Class Layout
Fall Semester
Fall Semester
In a two-semester course, a project is completed in groups of 4-5, focuses on user empathy. Students will pick a problem scope, develop a “how might we” statement, create and conduct a research plan, synthesize the research, and present their findings to the corporate partner.
Spring Semester
Spring Semester
The final project (Spring), completed individually, builds off the work done in the fall semester. Students take their insights and get to work, ideating prototyping, evaluating, and improving their ideas. Teams’ work evolve from concepts, to low-fidelity prototypes, to high-fidelity prototypes. Finally, students will create a case study of their work and formally present to the corporate partner.
Entrepreneurial Solution Development - EXD
EXD is an experiential, project-based course where students develop idea-stage entrepreneurial ventures. Students work in multidisciplinary teams on real-world challenges, and develop solutions (i.e. products, services) that could serve as the offerings around which new ventures may be built.
The course is focused on cross-training rather than discipline specialization; lectures on design, entrepreneurship, and business principles with the expectation that all students will engage with concepts, and to varying degrees execution of activities, across fields.
The course culminates in a pitch of each team’s venture, including a validated product/service concept with a working prototype and a supporting business model with robust evidence for the venture’s potential success.
Example Course Syllabus
Weeks 1 - 8
- Course into and overview / Finding problems worth solving
- Into to Human-centered design )HCD) / Team formation
- Problem framing / Secondary research
- Empathy and HCD research basis
- Research analysis, synthesis, and insights / Frameworks for data synthesis
- Midterm presentations
- Ideation and prototyping methods / Brainstorming and rapid prototypes
- Testing and usability / Articulating and testing desirability hypothesis
Weeks 9 - 16
- Business model basics / Articulating and testing feasibility and viability hypothesis
- How to stand out? / Competitive analysis and differentiation strategy
- Storytelling & effective pitching / 4-minute pitches
- Ongoing prototype iteration / High-fidelity prototypes
- Go-to-market strategy / Ongoing project work
- Final presentation dry runs
- Final presentations
Class Pictures
Tech-in-Residence - TIR
In the summer students can be selected for a summer internship with the company after the course ends. Applying academic learning to a real business opportunity and receiving mentorship and feedback from a corporate partner is a rare opportunity that students can leverage to land industry positions after graduation. These internships ensure that students hit the ground running after their familiarity within a corporate setting. Interns have a retention rate of over 90%, remaining with the company after completing the internship.
Selection phase: August through December
Eligible students are recruited and can apply for the TIR program taking place the following spring semester. The corporate partner will come to campus for an information session to give interested students a better understanding of the opportunity, the challenge project, and the company. Students selected will have the opportunity to interview with the partner for a summer internship during the upcoming summer. Once all the students are selected, they register for the class, CS394 Special Topics in Computer Science.
Classroom phase: January through May
The students will be divided into 4-5 teams and work with product teams from the partner company, applying lean innovation methodologies solving real business challenges. All students will learn what it is like to work with industry level expectations and business constraints to solve for the real needs of the partner organizations.
Internship phase: June – August
Students selected for the internship will begin working on-site at the partner company.
Program Participants
You may apply for TIR if you:
- are a current UIC undergraduate degree seeking student
- are majoring in data science, computer science, CS + Design, CS + Linguistics or a minor in computer science
- completed and earned a grade of “B” or better in CS 251 or have prior professional experience
- have completed at least one semester of major coursework at UIC and have a sophomore, junior or senior class standing
- have a UIC GPA of 3.0 or higher and not on academic probation
Freshmen and students graduating in Fall 2025 are ineligible.
How to apply for TIR
Application information will be made available on this website as soon as it is live. Please note: The opportunity to interview does not imply a guaranteed internship or job offer. However, even if the partner company does not extend an internship or job offer, a student who receives approval from the instructor course can still take the elective and benefit from that learning experience.
FY26 TIR Partner: AbbVie