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Undergraduate Courses

Choose Your Innovation Adventure

Now more than ever, the world needs creative problem solvers, leaders able to navigate unprecedented situations with confidence and clarity. Whatever your major is, and whatever your passions are, you’ll find I&E courses that let you explore your interests and build innovation and entrepreneurship skills to help you in any career.

You can learn about how to launch a venture, how to innovate using social media, or how entrepreneurs can help solve the world’s most pressing problems. Take a deep dive into innovations in global health, the arts, ethical tech, and more.

Many additional courses cross-listed under other departments count towards the elective requirements of the Undergraduate I&E Certificate. Visit the Certificate page to learn more.

The date, time, and location for each course can be found in DukeHub.

Spring 2023

  • I&E 89S-01 Special Topics Improvisation
    Jody McAuliffe
  • I&E 89S-02 Special Topics Creative Collaboration
    Thomas Brothers
  • I&E 190 Special Topics Design Your Duke
    Gregory Victory

    Design Your Duke Journey (+Career!) is an interactive course that applies a design-thinking framework and mindset to career exploration and development. Students will learn to get curious, try stuff out and talk to people through experiential activities in and out of the classroom, self-reflection, readings and discussion. The intended goal is that students will learn how design thinking can help them explore options and opportunities, and at the same time, wrestle with the “wicked” problem of: How do I know if I’m on the right track, if I don’t know exactly what the destination is? This class is best suited for First-year or Sophomore undergraduate students.
  • I&E 172 Anthropology of Design and UX
    Baker, Lee

    The field of design and the burgeoning field of User Experience (UX) research has recently applied the methods anthropologists have used for over a century. The methods of cultural anthropology are distinctly aligned to ask questions about motivations, beliefs, values, and relationships within cultural systems through direct participant observation, surveys, focus groups, and archival research. Privileging critical listening, empathy, and perspective-taking, we try to discern why people do what they do, and apply these questions to human-centered design.
  • I&E 230S Arts Policy and Leadership
    Andrew Nurkin

    This community-engaged course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in US arts policy and cultural sector leadership across four broad themes: creative institutions; cultural equity and accessibility; creative placemaking/community development; and the creative economy. In addition to policy questions in these areas, we examine leadership practices in arts organizations and cultural institutions, with particular attention to the kinds of leadership the arts require in a post-2020 world. Students will work in teams on a semester-long collaborative project with an arts policy organization and experience the arts in practice through attendance at performances and exhibitions.
  • I&E 250 Building Global Audiences
    Aaron Dinin

    Marketing and publicity are so important to audience building that, 20 years ago, expanding beyond local audiences usually couldn’t be accomplished without huge advertising budgets. However, thanks to the Internet, you can build a global audience from your dorm room. This class explores how. Learn about social media, search engine optimization, virality, content marketing, growth hacking, and other digital audience building strategies. They’re difficult to learn and time consuming to execute, so expect to struggle. We’ll learn as much from our failures as we will from our successes as we discover what it takes to cultivate global awareness for an idea without ever leaving Durham.
  • I&E 253 Social Marketing: From Literary Celebrities to Instagram Influencers
    Aaron Dinin

    Typical Duke students spend hours each day using social media. You’ve surely heard the platforms described as “revolutionary,” and you’ve also heard them described as “time wasters.” What you probably haven’t thought about is how similar they are to previous “revolutionary” communications technologies like novels, newspapers, and even language itself. This course explores ways in which studying the masters of previous “social” media technologies—the Shakespeares, Whitmans, and Eliots of the world—can help us understand how influencers on digital social media leverage the same platforms you use every day to market themselves, build their brands, and grow their audiences.
  • I&E 262 Designing Transformative Learning
    Aria Chernik

    The term “open source” is frequently used to denote software source code that is freely available, modifiable, and shareable. However, the term has much wider applicability and relevance. The core values of open source–open knowledge and access to information, collaboration and community, transparency and meritocracy, inclusion and diversity, and iterative creation and adaptability–have profound implications for 21st century learning. In this learner-centered, project-based course, students will research the intersection of open source concepts, technology, and education innovation and share their knowledge across public-facing open-access media.
  • I&E 275 Media, Entertainment, and Tech
    Jed Simmons

    The class will jump into the middle of the change and innovation happening at the intersection of Media, Entertainment and Technology. We will look at how we make, distribute and consume Media and Entertainment. We will focus on entrepreneurs and innovative companies and creators revolutionizing Media and Entertainment, as well as thought leaders and leading companies in the space. The class will feature Cases, articles, speakers, in class discussion along with a term long project.
  • I&E 290.01 Special Topics: Product Management
    Steven McClelland
    Th 3:30PM – 6:00PM
    FITZPATRICK SCHICIANO A 1464
    Days/times and location are subject to change

    When creating transformative technology based products and services the essential component to its success and positive impact on society is the central role of humans. This course explores this intersection of the humanities and technology. On the development side products are created in interdisciplinary teams through leadership, communication, process building, trust, experimentation, critical thinking, and problem solving. On the user experience side new innovations are successful when they are designed for and with humans in mind. Product managers must understand diverse cultures and customers. Concepts covered include needs finding, ethical product development, problem identification, market opportunity analysis, strategy, road mapping, product development, competitive analysis, branding, and life cycle management. Learning takes place using a mix of individual and team-based assignments, presentations, simulations and projects.
  • I&E 295S Arts Entrepreneurship
    Douglas Green,
    John Supko

    Student teams work on specific arts-based entrepreneurial projects. Teams comprised of students from different backgrounds (arts, engineering, economics, computer science). Goals include creating business plan and launching ventures in areas of the arts. Structure an adaptation of Fuqua Program for Entrepreneurs. Ideal projects have real/positive impact on society. Students learn to situate artistic creativity within projects that meet societal need. Students from any background welcome to apply for enrollment. Must have interest in arts or working with artists in entrepreneurial context. Admission by permission of instructors.
  • I&E 302 Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation
    Charles Thompson

    Anthropology as a discipline (a field of study) and the site where anthropologists work: the field. Combines theories of anthropological fieldwork methods with practice, including participation, observation, and interviews. Students undertake original research in a local fieldsite of their choice and produce their own mini-ethnography. This requirement may also be satisfied by taking Cultural Anthropology 290A Duke in Ghana Anthropological Field Research.
  • I&E 350 Customer Empathy & Brand Experience Design
    Brad Brinegar

    Before Dollar Shave Club, we went to Target to save on Gillette. We still buy traditional brands at traditional stores. But a host of these disruptors are cutting out the middleman while redefining brick-and-mortar retail. Amazon now gets us whatever we want, whenever and wherever we want it. Dollar Shave Club quickly amassed 3 million subscribers. These “direct-to-consumer” brands control every customer interaction. These brands become as much about that experience as about the product itself. This requires customer empathy. Armed with these insights, we can create brands that reframe peoples’ category expectations and, in best cases, enhance their lives.
  • I&E 352 Strategies for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
    Katharine Amato

    Course covers component elements of developing skills needed to launch a venture. Starting at the point of need identification, course covers lean methodology; innovation and entrepreneurship strategy; creating needed financing and resource structures; effectively marketing/communicating innovation and its associated benefits; leading, managing, and working effectively within teams; creating a positive and ethical work culture; and evaluating success. Materials for class discussion are case studies and readings. Course is only open to Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate students.
  • I&E 395 New Ventures Development
    Jamie Jones

    Do you want to design a business model around either your own idea or someone else’s problem? In New Ventures: Development you’ll learn to assess opportunities, develop and test business models, understand your financials, and build successful teams. If you’ve validated an idea through New Ventures: Discovery or through your independent customer discovery process, New Venture: Development can facilitate idea to action. In this course, student teams will develop core elements of a strategy for a technology or business idea; detail will be suitable for a business plan document for a company seeking initial investment; strategy will serve as a foundation for a first operating plan for company. Read more about the course.

    Note: If you’re interested in working on your own startup in the course, please submit an application by December 7 at the latest to show that you have identified a real customer problem and have a unique insight into how to solve that customer need.
  • I&E 396 New Ventures Delivery
    Monica Wood

    Did your idea pass muster in New Ventures Development? Do you have early revenue or evidence of product market fit and want to continue to refine your go to market strategy? New Ventures Delivery is the ideal course for serious entrepreneurs ready to push themselves to take the leap. In this course you will continue to test core hypothesis while you develop a milestone driven plan for go-to-market, sales, staffing, and fundraising.
  • I&E 499.01 Entrepreneurship Capstone: Discovery
    Aaron Dinin

    In this course, students bring together interdisciplinary insights from their work throughout the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program to shed light on innovation and entrepreneurship and the roles they play in addressing the world’s most pressing problems. The class will incorporate rich discussion, selected readings, and guest speakers addressing topics in innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will focus on applying what they have learned through the certificate curriculum to develop an innovation and entrepreneurship capstone project. Director of undergraduate studies consent required.
  • I&E 499.03 Entrepreneurship Capstone: Develop/Deliver
    Jamie Jones

    In this course, students bring together interdisciplinary insights from their work throughout the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program to shed light on innovation and entrepreneurship and the roles they play in addressing the world’s most pressing problems. The class will incorporate rich discussion, selected readings, and guest speakers addressing topics in innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will focus on applying what they have learned through the certificate curriculum to develop an innovation and entrepreneurship capstone project. Director of undergraduate studies consent required. Read more about the course.

    Note: If you’re interested in working on your own startup in the course, please submit an application by December 7 at the latest to show that you have identified a real customer problem and have a unique insight into how to solve that customer need.
  • I&E 499.04 Entrepreneurship Capstone: Client-Focused
    Departmental Staff

    In this course, students bring together interdisciplinary insights from their work throughout the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program to shed light on innovation and entrepreneurship and the roles they play in addressing the world’s most pressing problems. The class will incorporate rich discussion, selected readings, and guest speakers addressing topics in innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will focus on applying what they have learned through the certificate curriculum to develop an innovation and entrepreneurship capstone project. Director of undergraduate studies consent required.
  • I&E 590 Special Topics: Global Health Practicum
    Clements, Dennis

    Students will engage with entrepreneurs to learn about and support the design, development, validation, assessment, and scaling up of innovative, sustainable approaches to addressing critical health, social and environmental problems in East Africa. Teams will gather and analyze data, develop recommendations, formulate implementation plans, and provide other capacity-building support to clients that may include entrepreneurs, enterprises, funders, public sector innovators, and corporate social impact managers. Projects may be in areas such as strategy, program, marketing and communications, operations, finance, human capital, public private partnerships, etc. Service Learning course.
  • I&E 590.02 Special Topics: Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
    Instructor: Fay Horwitt

    The goal of this course is to give the student an understanding of the emergent practice of building equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems. After taking this course, students should have an understanding of commonly accepted – as well as innovative – practices for the development, leadership, and sustainability of place-based support networks for historically and/or systemically underestimated entrepreneurs and business owners.

    An aligned group project will provide relevant community connectivity and allow students to derive practical lessons from experience (both successes and failures) in actual ecosystems.

    The topics to be covered include:
    -Historical context of inequities within the U.S.-based entrepreneurial development
    -Skills and roles in equitable ecosystem development
    -Ecosystem building as a lever for sustainable systems change
    -Effective strategies for shifting ecosystem mindsets
    -Relationships, connectivity, and power dynamics
    -Policies, practices, and resource flow
  • I&E 590.03 Special Topics: New Ventures Clinic: Climate
    Instructor: Jon Fjeld

    Students will work in teams of four to six, with a mix of backgrounds and areas of study. They will be assigned three technologies/business ideas. In the first half of the course, teams will be asked to evaluate the business ideas as the basis for a new venture. At the course midpoint, they will present their conclusions and choose one project to take forward into the second half of the course. In this portion, they will develop a strategy for a new venture to commercialize or pursue the idea they have chosen. They will perform an analysis and choose the target customer, develop a business model, create an approach to developing the venture with a view to sustainability, and develop a roadmap for execution in the short term (likely a two year horizon but this is dependent on the nature of the venture and opportunity). The strategy shall be sufficient to serve as a foundation for a first operating plan for the company. Each team will be assigned projects that fall in the same broad category (listed below) so that they can leverage their research into an industry area. Energy Transformation, Climate Resilience, Climate & Data , Carbon sequestration

Fall 2023

  • I&E 110 Design Your Duke Journey
    Greg Victory

    Design Your Duke Journey (+Career!) is an interactive course that applies a design-thinking framework and mindset to career exploration and development. Students will learn to get curious, try stuff out and talk to people through experiential activities in and out of the classroom, self-reflection, readings and discussion. The intended goal is that students will learn how design thinking can help them explore options and opportunities, and at the same time, wrestle with the “wicked” problem of: How do I know if I’m on the right track, if I don’t know exactly what the destination is? This class is best suited for first-year or sophomore undergraduate students.
  • I&E 190 SPECIAL TOPICS: Field Testing Ideas
    Departmental Staff

    What’s an idea and how do you know it is a good idea? The only way to know if your idea meets the needs, situations, and pain points of people is to test it. Testing ideas requires you to go out into the world and engage with real people to more deeply understand their pain points and needs. In this course students will apply an entrepreneurial framework of discovery starting with their idea and validating it through a process of hypothesis testing and iteration. At the end of this course students will be able to identify meaningful problems, know how to test potential commercial/social solutions, and understand whether their idea solves a real need.
  • I&E 252 LEARNING TO FAIL
    Aaron Dinin

    Most people spend their lives afraid of failing. Yet, many of the world’s most successful people failed numerous times on their paths toward success. The underlying question of this class is if failing is as antithetical to learning as we’re taught to believe. To explore this question, we will test ways of using failure as a strategy for learning. We will experiment with failure to learn how it can make us better as we develop our skills as innovators, specifically focusing on the earliest stage of creativity: ideation. We will use failure through experimentation as a technique for problem definition and needs discovery which, in turn, will help us validate the quality of our ideas.
  • I&E 253 Social Marketing: From Literary Celebrities to Instagram Influencers
    Aaron Dinin

    Typical Duke students spend hours each day using social media. You’ve surely heard the platforms described as “revolutionary,” and you’ve also heard them described as “time wasters.” What you probably haven’t thought about is how similar they are to previous “revolutionary” communications technologies like novels, newspapers, and even language itself. This course explores ways in which studying the masters of previous “social” media technologies—the Shakespeares, Whitmans, and Eliots of the world—can help us understand how influencers on digital social media leverage the same platforms you use every day to market themselves, build their brands, and grow their audiences.
  • I&E 261.01 SOCIAL INNOVATION | I&E 261.02 SOCIAL INNOVATION
    Erin Worsham

    This course will provide an introduction to the field of social innovation. Through readings, classroom discussion, experiential learning, and individual and team assignments, the course will provide students with concepts and frameworks for understanding and practicing effective social innovation. The course develops a theory of innovation and describes examples of persons and organizations demonstrating innovative approaches. We will look at how to innovate effectively and the attributes and skills that cultivate such innovation. We will also explore the limitations of social innovation and consider critical arguments that the field must address.
  • I&E 263S Entrepreneurial Problem Solving in Global Health
    Dennis Clements

    Global health, both international and local, has a long way to go to support healthy lives. In this class, students will have the opportunity to gain understanding of how the Entrepreneurial method can help to improve health. Students will learn about the victories and the challenges, and in the end, will be better able to be successful in their future endeavors. Students will be challenged, and will have to work, but in the end, they will be proud of their accomplishments and newfound knowledge.
  • I&E 265S INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL FEMINISM
    Rachel S Gelfand

    The aim of this course is to critically analyze digital culture from a feminist and gender studies perspective. We will address topics related to digital innovation and its history, unpacking and questioning them through the insights offered by genders studies analytical tools. Subjects such as the rise of the Silicon Valley, gaming culture, social media, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, extraction of data applied to biotechnology, macroeconomic development of IT platforms and the impact of technology on ecology will be discussed starting from a current event or debate, to which we will give a historical, ethical, sociological, theoretical, literary or cinematographic perspective.
  • I&E 290.01 Special Topics: Product Management
    Amy S Peters,
    Isaac Isuk Park

    When creating transformative technology based products and services the essential component to its success and positive impact on society is the central role of humans. This course explores this intersection of the humanities and technology. On the development side products are created in interdisciplinary teams through leadership, communication, process building, trust, experimentation, critical thinking, and problem solving. On the user experience side new innovations are successful when they are designed for and with humans in mind. Product managers must understand diverse cultures and customers. Concepts covered include needs finding, ethical product development, problem identification, market opportunity analysis, strategy, road mapping, product development, competitive analysis, branding, and life cycle management. Learning takes place using a mix of individual and team-based assignments, presentations, simulations and projects.
  • I&E 302 Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation
    Katya Wesolowski

    Anthropology as a discipline (a field of study) and the site where anthropologists work: the field. Combines theories of anthropological fieldwork methods with practice, including participation, observation, and interviews. Students undertake original research in a local field site of their choice and produce their own mini-ethnography. This requirement may also be satisfied by taking Cultural Anthropology 290A Duke in Ghana Anthropological Field Research.
  • I&E 350 Customer Empathy & Brand Experience Design
    Brad Brinegar

    Before Dollar Shave Club, we went to Target to save on Gillette. We still buy traditional brands at traditional stores. But a host of these disruptors are cutting out the middleman while redefining brick-and-mortar retail. Amazon now gets us whatever we want, whenever and wherever we want it. Dollar Shave Club quickly amassed 3 million subscribers. These “direct-to-consumer” brands control every customer interaction. These brands become as much about that experience as about the product itself. This requires customer empathy. Armed with these insights, we can create brands that reframe peoples’ category expectations and, in best cases, enhance their lives.
  • I&E 352 Strategies for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
    Katharine Amato

    Course covers component elements of developing skills needed to launch a venture. Starting at the point of need identification, course covers lean methodology; innovation and entrepreneurship strategy; creating needed financing and resource structures; effectively marketing/communicating innovation and its associated benefits; leading, managing, and working effectively within teams; creating a positive and ethical work culture; and evaluating success. Materials for class discussion are case studies and readings. Course is only open to Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate students.
  • I&E 375 The Economics of Entrepreneurship
    Grace Kim

    Application of microeconomic theory, such as game theory and industrial organization, to analyze business start-ups and their development. Focus on evaluation of the role of entrepreneurs in the macroeconomy, and the microeconomic performance of young businesses. The effects of government policies and economic fluctuations on entrepreneurs will be addressed, as well as an understanding of the organization and financial structure, development, and allocational decisions of growing entrepreneurial ventures. Prerequisite: Economics 201D.
  • I&E 390S Advanced Special Topics Seminar: INNOVATING FOR SOCIAL IMPACT
    Danielle Zapotoczny

    Innovating for Social Impact will explore the ever-evolving intersection between the public sector, private sector, and non-profit organizations in delivering needed services around the world. With a global “to do list” in place via the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders are calling upon the private sector, NGOs and individuals to play an active role alongside governments in finding and implementing solutions. These partnerships are such a priority that “Partnership for the Goals” is specifically called out as one of the SDGs.

    Focusing on “social impact” partnerships, this course will look at innovative ways that the individuals, influencers and the private sector are creating change along with the reasons driving their desire to do so. From a soda company delivering vaccines through their distribution channels and local restaurants being tapped to serve as the hot lunchroom for public schools to product lines like RED being created with the sole purpose of funding AIDS interventions and businesses like TOMS and Warby Parker embedding purpose as part of their company DNA, social problems and public needs are being tackled in innovative ways with collaboration across the public, private and non-profit sectors.

    Brands and influencers are also leveraging their platforms with the specific intent of raising public engagement in important issues. These innovative marketing and communications strategies play an interesting and evolving role in shaping social action, and sometimes policy, as they drive mass audiences to take action via advocacy or with companies either via dollars they spend or by shaping the workplace from the inside out.

    As the lines continue to blur on who does what and how, it is an important time to look at how collaboration across sectors can lead to real progress. By studying the various ways that these sectors are leveraging their talents, time and treasure to have an impact on social good, students will see there is no one way to be a change-maker. As many students will exercise professional and/or volunteer leadership in public-private sector issues during their careers, the enhanced knowledge, personal insight, and evaluation skills learned in this course should support them as they leave Duke and look to help solve the world’s most pressing problems, no matter what career path they choose.
  • I&E 499 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Capstone: Ideas into Action
    Aaron Dinin

    In this course, students bring together interdisciplinary insights from their work throughout the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program to shed light on innovation and entrepreneurship and the roles they play in addressing the world’s most pressing problems. The class will incorporate rich discussion, selected readings, and guest speakers addressing topics in innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will focus on applying what they have learned through the certificate curriculum to develop an innovation and entrepreneurship capstone project. Director of undergraduate studies consent required.
  • I&E 510 Social Innovation Practicum
    Departmental Staff

    Students will engage with social entrepreneurs and other practitioners to learn about and support the design, development, validation, assessment, and scaling up of innovative, sustainable approaches to addressing critical social and environmental problems in Durham and around the world. For the service-learning component of the course, students will work in multidisciplinary teams to gather and analyze data, develop recommendations, formulate implementation plans, and provide other capacity-building support to clients that may include domestic and international social entrepreneurs, social enterprises, funders, public sector innovators, policy makers, and corporate social impact managers.
  • I&E 511.01 Designing Ethical Tech | I&E 511.02 Designing Ethical Tech
    Aria Chernik

    Digital technology is not power-neutral; designed by humans, technological devices and systems are encoded with conscious and unconscious biases. In this learner-centered, problem-focused, and project-based course, students will investigate the relationship between how technology is designed and the impact a design has on reinforcing–and sometimes subverting–oppressive power structures in society such as racism and sexism. Students will learn about open design, an equity-centered innovation methodology, and, working in teams, apply it to create a prototype that addresses the problem of unethical technology development.
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