The Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation is a space where undergraduate and graduate students are able to assist real organizations by solving their real-world problems while being creative.

Students at the center can achieve greatness with the mentoring support of the manager and executive director of the center as they work with real clients with real needs. Students in the past have worked with organizations with companies such as global financial services organizations, large health systems, digital health startups, research institutes and established organizations looking to enter new markets.

When you become a part of the center, you soon notice a key belief system that is the core of the center.

The key to innovation is the Innovation Cycle.

It starts with failures that create pain in a system. Great pain creates tensions that power the creative and adaptive capabilities of people and organizations to innovate. This generates new mental maps that enable the emergence of value-creating innovation and novel growth.

Executive Director and Professor of Innovation Christopher Wasden is named inventor of 11 issued patents and has been a leader of 10 different startups where he developed many of his ideas around the innovation cycle. Wasden holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School, and bachelor’s degrees in accounting (BS) and Asian studies (BA) from Brigham Young University.

For more information, click here. This is a great Eccles Experience for students who want to immerse themselves in experiential learning.

Contact Christopher Wasden for any questions at Chris.Wasden@Eccles.Utah.edu.