iii Year in Review 2022
Join us as we look back at the iii community's accomplishments during 2022
By Jess Ignasky
Welcome to the Integrated Innovation Institute's 2022 Year in Review! From stories of our current students to graduates to alumni to faculty, we've rounded up some of this year's shining moments.
After an exciting, busy, and fun 2022, we can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store for the Integrated Innovation Institute! Continue to follow our blog or social media channels for the latest updates on what our community is up to.
275 Enrolled Students
This year, 275 students were enrolled across our programs including our Master of Integrated Innovation in Products and Services degree, Master of Science in Technology Ventures degree, Master of Science in Software Management degree, and our new Online Certificate & MIIPS Online Degree programs. In January, we welcomed 21 new students to our MSTV program. Those students began their degree in Pittsburgh and would move on to Silicon Valley in the summer to finish out their program.
While new students were starting their program, others were putting the skills they learned during their 2021 Fall semester to good use. MIIPS students began working on their Integrated Product Development capstone course after being assigned a team with a corporate sponsor for their project. While capstone was ongoing, MIIPS students were also working on designing prototypes for their Internet of Things course during the 2022 Spring semester.
In our MSSM program, students took their software management skills to the next level from developing tools to facilitate workplace conversations to creating their own startups alongside fellow MSTV students in Silicon Valley.
Students celebrated multiple successes in 2022 at competitions both locally and globally. A group of MIIPS students placed first in the McGinnis Venture Competition hosted by the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, winning $25k in funding. Elsewhere, MIIPS students received an honorable mention from the Service Design Challenge from Phillips Experience Design, having competed against 90 teams worldwide.
As the year progressed, the entrepreneurial spirit of our students shined through with MSTV and MSSM students pitching their startup ideas to VentureBridge mentors from the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Students and alumni alike also joined in to share details about their entrepreneurial journeys for National Entrepreneurship Month.
100 Internships
During the summer of 2022, 100 iii students completed internships both virtually and in-person at companies like Google, Good Growth Capital, and PetSmart.
43 MIIPS students embraced roles such as “Product Management Intern” or “UX Design Intern,” putting their product and service design skills to the test with projects like identifying omnichannel experiences for an app, creating a strategic plan to drive future innovations in sports and retail, and innovating in industrial design.
36 MSSM students worked in roles like “Software Engineering Intern” or “Product Management Intern,” utilizing their software management skills with projects like putting new products on an e-commerce platform, grooming the backlog for hotfix releases, and improving user experience on YouTube.
21 MSTV students worked in roles like “MBA Intern” or “Summer Associate” utilizing their entrepreneurial skills on projects like managing a pilot project across 500+ networks of universities and assisting founders of a venture capital firm with tasks such as market research, intellectual property evaluation, and business development.
While students found success in their internships, there were other experiential opportunities throughout the year as well, such as the Grace Hopper Celebration. Here, current students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the iii community traveled to the event that connects thousands of women and non-binary technologists.
105 Graduates
This year, we were happy to return to in-person celebrations for our graduates from the MIIPS, MSTV, and MSSM programs.
During the Spring ceremony, we celebrated 14 MIIPS and 5 MSTV graduates of the class of 2022 and invited alumni from the classes of 2020 and 2021 to join us for the in-person diploma ceremony.
In the summer, we held a diploma ceremony for our MSSM class of 2022 and honored our MSSM alumni from 2020 and 2021 in Silicon Valley. 4 MSSM students formally graduated in August while 36 additional MSSM students recognized at the ceremony formally graduated in December 2022.
Recently, we celebrated our MIIPS Advanced class of 2022 at a Graduation Celebration. These students, alongside our dual degree MSTV class of 2022 December graduates, will be welcomed back at our formal diploma ceremony in the spring of 2023.
216 Alumni Office Hour Visits
From book releases to startup successes, 2022 was also a busy year for our alumni and faculty!
The year started out strong with Dr. Shantha Mohan, software engineering leader, entrepreneur, and mentor to students as Executive in Residence at the iii contributed a chapter about AI in retail to the book, Demystifying AI for the Enterprise. Dr. Mohan also wrote about leadership and business in her book published this year, Leadership Lessons with The Beatles.
Another faculty member, Karim Shaikh, Chief Technology Officer at Cato and faculty member in the M.S. Software Management program, contributed their expertise and knowledge to a book as well. Karim wrote a chapter about autonomous digital infrastructure for the book, Greener Data, published in spring of 2022.
Our alumni network remained strong and connected during the year, providing updates on their current ventures and projects. Our Alumni Relations Manager, Mary Kilcoyne, profiled several alumni on stories such as: using AR to enhance shopping experiences, co-founding two first-to-market startups in Mexico, transitioning from consulting to product management while balancing motherhood, leaving a career as an actuary and becoming an innovation leader in AI, designing the future of consumer banking, creating a social media analytics platform for visual listening on viral videos, founding two startups that optimized computer processing, and using software engineering skills to advance the fight against cancer.
Recent MSTV alum, Alex Cusell, shared insights into her startup, Jisell upon being selected for the VentureBridge summer cohort and reflections on her time as a Swartz Fellow (another exciting note, this year, three iii students were selected in the new cohort of Swartz Fellows for 2022-2024!)
Alumni were also gracious in sharing their knowledge with the iii community and beyond from appearing on panels at the Grace Hopper Celebration to recognizing skills learned in online certificates that boosted their careers to sharing insights on their entrepreneurial journeys.
This year, 47 alumni also took part in a new initiative for iii students called Alumni Office Hours. Alumni Office Hours allow students to sign up for a 1:1 meeting with an alum for advice about their career, classes, and more. Since the initiative began in October, 57 students had a collective 216 meetings with alumni registered for the program.
