The AIMS/Entrepreneurship Institute’s Digital Innovation Center, modeled after Miami University’s Luxembourg Campus, offers a semester-long immersive experience for Miami students in the Bay Area. We plan to bring a cohort of students to live, work, study, play, and embed themselves in the heart of global innovation.

[Looking for information about this year's interns? Here (PDF) is a summary of the internship opportunity for potential hosts. Please contact us (aims[at]muohio.edu) to followup]

Background

For fifteen years, the Interactive Media Studies (AIMS) program at Miami University has been a national leader in the study and practice of digital media. Crossing all five academic divisions (business, engineering, fine arts, education, and arts & science), the AIMS program offers an interdisciplinary major, two minors, and other curricular options for students interested in the frontiers of digital media. The Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami is a distinctive and revolutionary program that emphasizes teaching excellence, real-world learning opportunities and social entrepreneurship programs. Both the Interactive Media Studies and Entrepreneurship programs are ranked in the top 25, respectively. Our students this year have background in social media marketing, digital branding, digital entrepreneurship, web analytics, as well experience with their own startups, expertise in graphic design, coding, and marketing. It’s a diverse group – all talented.

Both of these programs have a long history of client-based projects, corporate partners in research, and focus on innovation and design thinking. From workshops with IDEO to client projects with Gensler, the programs have continually found themselves drawn westward, even having an AIMS advisory board meeting in San Francisco. The magnetic draw of the Bay Area is no surprise – both of these programs share a common passion with the Bay Area for innovation and technology. And while guest lectures and case studies are useful, there is no “bringing the Bay Area to Oxford,” so we must look to bring Oxford to the Bay Area.