On September 21, Herrmann International CEO Ann Herrmann-Nehdi will be a guest lecturer for students in the University of Maine’s Innovation Engineering® program. With Whole Brain^® Thinking fundamental to the program’s curriculum, Ann will be debriefing students on their Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument^® (HBDI^®) profile results and delivering foundational classes in Whole Brain^® methodology.

The university offers a universal minor in Innovation Engineering^® as well as a graduate certificate; Ann will be teaching classes to all students in the program, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Margo Lukens, who is Co-Director of the Student Innovation Center with Renee Kelly, directs the academic program and explains that one of the tenets of the program is that recognizing and leveraging diverse thinking preferences is critical to the creativity and innovation process.

Students learn the skills and tools to work with team members of varying thinking styles to uncover more ideas and find better solutions to problems. They also learn how and when to flex their own thinking and “reach for tools outside their preferences,” she says.

The innovation courses are open to any student interested in learning a systematic approach to creativity, and they have attracted students from Engineering to Liberal Arts to Business Management and Marketing to Natural Sciences and Forestry. The courses are designed to help students develop, refine, communicate and successfully implement new ideas, with real-world application to prepare them for launching their careers.

Inventor, author, innovation guru, Eureka! Ranch CEO and University of Maine alumnus Doug Hall is the driving force behind the Innovation Engineering^® program. As he puts it: “The goal of this program is to bridge college education with the real world. Basically, what we’re doing is cross-training your brain.”

The program is currently offered only at the University of Maine’s Orono campus, where it originated, but it will be extended throughout the University of Maine system over the next several years.