FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Candice Conti
805-756-5171; clconti@calpoly.edu

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) has named three professors to its Faculty Fellows program: graphic communication Professor Charmaine Farber, computer science Professor David Janzen, and architecture professor Clare Olsen join the multidisciplinary cohort in preparing students to become emerging entrepreneurial leaders.

“CIE faculty fellows become part of an interdisciplinary community that is committed to inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs,” said Lynn Metcalf, CIE senior faculty fellow and Hood Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship. “They raise awareness of CIE programs and provide guidance to students and faculty with an interest in innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The CIE has faculty fellows within each of Cal Poly’s six academic colleges. These educators incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship into coursework, serve as CIE ambassadors within their discipline, and help guide motivated students through the different entrepreneurial career paths. This year’s fellows were selected from a pool of 16 applicants based on specific plans to introduce innovative measures into the classroom.

“The collaboration between students and faculty cultivates innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Jonathon York, CIE co-founder and faculty director. “The alliance of faculty from all colleges and disciplines is a key factor in the growth of the entrepreneurial culture at Cal Poly.”

Farber plans to share her experience specializing in mobile app user interface and user experience to Cal Poly’s technology startups. She joined Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts in 2015 after teaching at Quinnipiac, Youngstown State University and the University of Iowa. Her research specializes in community and user engagement and storytelling through various media.

Janzen’s project aims to engage students who have software development skills with concepts and ideas that have the potential to launch a startup. Since 2006, he has led Cal Poly’s software engineering capstone sequence, working with Intuit, Amgen, Salesforce and General Atomics. Janzen is founder of CIE startup Steadfast Innovation, which launched the handwriting note-taking app Squid (formerly Papyrus).

Olsen will spearhead the development of a major and a set of co-curricular courses on sustainable product design at Cal Poly. After teaching at Tulane, Cornell and Syracuse universities, Olsen now focuses on design, materials and digital technology in Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. She has written extensively on interdisciplinary collaborations between architecture and disciplines such as engineering.

The 2015-16 class of CIE Faculty Fellows joins fellows Enrica Lovaglio Costello, art and design; Bob Crockett, biomedical engineering; Dale Dolan, electrical engineering; Lorraine Donegan, graphic communication; Mary Glick, journalism; Brian Granger, physics; Lynn Metcalf, marketing; Umut Toker, architecture; and Christiane Schroeter, agribusiness.

About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship manages and supports a wide variety of programs and activities to stimulate the entrepreneurial Learn by Doing spirit at Cal Poly and to assist entrepreneurs in following their dreams. For more information, go to cie.calpoly.edu.

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