Community Partnerships

Creating impact beyond the bounds of the Olin campus is an important part of making Engineering for Everyone.

Through our engagement with the wider community, Olin students, faculty, and staff contribute as collaborators, teachers, mentors, and problem-solvers. Working with our partners builds stronger connections between communities and individuals, while also striving to make the world a better place.

A photo of three students working outside at a workbench with a trailer in the background
Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship

ADE is a senior capstone program and joint venture with Babson College, where seniors collaborate with communities around the world to address challenges of poverty.

 

ADE is an international, experiential social entrepreneurship and design course that aims to create solutions with people and democratize opportunity.

Olin students’ one-of-a-kind engineering education informs the development of life-changing technologies and social ventures in developing and underserved areas. With community partners, students co-create and test new products and ventures with the goal to reduce burden, expand education, improve health, and generate income.

ADE is now an anchor program in the Weissman Foundry, a new maker space on Babson’s campus right on the edge of Olin’s, with a mandate to engage across Babson, Olin, and Wellesley (BOW) to produce maximum collaboration and impact.

Learn more about ADE projects:

Research A photo from inside a greenhouse and looking out

ADE: Massachusetts

The ADE Massachusetts teams have engaged with area farmers to understand challenges and requirements in climate control.

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Research A photo of a group of people, college students and high schoolers co-creating a curriculum

ADE: Mississippi

This ADE project explores ways to catalyze a cycle of improvement within the Clarksdale, Mississippi community, where roughly 8,000 out of 17,000 total residents live below the poverty line.

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K–12 Outreach Team
Curricular Experiences

Professor Sarah Spence Adams and her K-12 Outreach student team outside of the Boys & Girls Club.

Creating Impact with Curricular Experiences

Olin students and faculty put user-focused design and engineering with purpose into practice as they partner with members of the community to tackle real-world problems. Olin’s community-focused curricular experiences include STEP (Social Technology Enterprise with Purpose) focused on creating impactful wearable technology and Mathematics and Engineering for Everyone focused on developing K-12 STEM curriculum and outreach. 

 

These learning experiences have positive outcomes for both our community partners whose needs are being addressed and Olin students who see their ability to make positive changes in the world. 

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Article An arrangement of multi-colored sticky notes adorn a classroom wall.

A Big STEP toward Engineering with a Purpose

Olin’s creative, triple-wide course called STEP is revolutionizing how students learn and make. This semester, 23 Olin students and four faculty are embarking on a new experiment together.

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Page Two summer research students in dark clothing connect a phone and app to a laptop via a white cord as two other team members look on.

Sample Research + Impact Projects

One important facet of an Olin faculty member's role is to engage in meaningful externally facing work through activities such as research, educational consulting, entrepreneurship, technical consulting, authoring textbooks and other creative work. Our externally facing work is valued for the impact it has on outside stakeholders such as research communities, companies, other universities, the general public and others.

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Article Olin and Boys & Girls Club students

STORY: New Course Focuses on K–12 Outreach, Community Impact

Sarah Spence Adams’s new research focus culminates in “Math and Engineering for Everyone.”

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Opportunities for Foundations and Non-profits

 

Many of our community partnerships are supported by foundations and non-profits who recognize the value of collaboration and innovation in tackling the world's most pressing societal, educational, and environmental challenges. Connect with us for more information on creating or supporting community-focused courses and projects. 

Stories about Foundations and Non-profits

Article A college-aged student bends over to help a young student working on a laptop.

Olin Extends Footprint to Cambridge with “The Mirror”

Olin extends its footprint to Cambridge with “The Mirror, ” partnering with Kendall Square Association and HBCUs to expand what’s possible for the young people and industries of Cambridge.

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Research Santos Volpe Team at Summit

National High-Injury Network Analysis Tool (NHAT)

Sponsor: Santos Family Foundation/Volpe National Transportation Center

Faculty Advisor: Lynn Andrea Stein

Partnering with the Santos Family Foundation and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, the team created a free national tool that allows communities to generate interactive HIN maps and understand the relationship between safety, equity, and other contextual factors. 

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Page Professor Helen Donis-Keller's class – Biomes, Biodiversity and Climate Change – visited Greentown Labs in October, and got a tour of the space where the clean tech companies work.

Greentown Labs - Climate Action at Work

Greentown Labs is the largest ClimateTech startup incubator in North America. Olin is a Megawatt Partner to Greentown Labs, encouraging impact-centered collaboration between Olin students, faculty, and alumni and ClimateTech startups working on innovative technologies in alternative energy, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and building efficiency.

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Have ideas for other ways to collaborate?

 

We welcome you to reach out to our office to explore partnership opportunities.

General inquiries should contact us at oepp@olin.edu.