April 1, 2015

Collaboration is at the very core of the ExCITe Center, and it's the underlying theme of this month's ExCITeCast. We've highlighted our workgroup, an example of extreme collaboration between co-op students representing different majors and interests. In the process of working together to tackle new projects and challenges, they expose one another to a broader range of perspectives, and sometimes come upon new and unexpected solutions to problems.

This kind of multi-disciplinary collaboration is nothing new. Teams with diverse expertise often come together to create complex things: Theater and movies, cars and space probes, and products from vacuum cleaners to iPhones. Apple is perhaps the most prominent example for this kind of collaboration, fully integrating design and technology, but this remains rare in the academic world.

I believe that the key to collaboration is trust in others and the perspectives they bring to the process. But Trust doesn't develop overnight. It's built on respect for another's talent, abilities, and insight. Unfortunately, when we don't understand something our first instinct is often to dismiss or diminish it. In fact, so many developments that define our lives today: movies, personal computing, digital and social media, were originally derided as useless toys or even worse, something that would warp minds.

Working at the intersection of Technology, Design, and Entrepreneurship, means that we have lots of different perspectives at the ExCITe Center. Artists and Scientists. Designers and  Engineers. Painters and Programmers.

Collaboration is seldom easy, it's an advanced form of working, and you have to really want it. But once again, we know that it's the only way to achieve our goal to become something greater than the sum of our parts.

Youngmoo Kim, Director