Before taking BADM 357, most of the classes I have attended before only required me to follow instructions and memorize the materials carefully. Never was I asked to be creative or innovative in any of my accounting courses. Instead, I was usually asked to as compliant as possible in class. So, I decided to take this class in order to challenge the creative and innovative aspect of my skill set and to get my hands on a new technology that will enabled to turn my ideas into reality. I knew at the moment that I stepped in to the Illinois MakerLab that this course was going to bring be a unique experience unlike any other classes I have taken before. It did not take long for the course for it to bring me new experiences.
In the second class, I not only traveled to a part of campus that I have previously never been to, but I also set foot in a building for the first time. For the entire class time, we visited the DRES building and met with our course mentors to listen their experiences and to brainstorm ideas according to their requests. Ryan, Adam, Ron, and Jenna all have their own unique stories while having different requests. One common theme throughout their requests is around affordability of the product to its users. It is very common that a cutting-edge technology is introduced to the general population but in order for it to be actually useful it has to be affordable to most people. From this experience, I have learned that the key takeaway Professor Sachdev wants us to have is to use our ability and skills to create something that will improve someone’s experience of life by a certain margin but not necessary to an extent that it will be life changing for them.
The experiences from the DRES visit was inspirational to say the least. It was interesting to hear from people that lived their lives from a different perspective and exciting how my ideas can potentially be incorporated in all our lives and experience the overall experiences. The most impressive part of the visit that I found was how an actual project from the class few years back has now become a fully functional business and his creating and delivering products to improve people live around the world. Even more, the products can be catered to all customer need and are extremely affordable. I look forward to work with the mentors for the rest of the semester and I hope that my ideas can eventually come to fruition and leave positive impacts in some people’s lives.
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