iii Year in Review 2024
Join us as we look back at the iii community's accomplishments during 2024
By Jess Ignasky
Welcome to the Integrated Innovation Institute's 2024 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 2024, we can’t wait to see what 2025 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.
135 New Students
This year, we welcomed 94 students across our Master of Integrated Innovation in Products and Services (MIIPS) degree, Master of Science in Software Management (MSSM) degree, and Online Certificate & MIIPS Online Degree programs.
2024 was also the first year students could declare the Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (EDIE) program as their additional undergraduate major. We were thrilled to officially welcome 41 students to the iii community at Major Declaration Day this past spring!
The incoming class of 2025 represents 13 countries and brings over 400 years of collective work experience to the Institute.
This year, our student community was as busy as ever—from taking classes part-time while advancing their careers to placing 3rd in the Student Service Design Challenge, here are just some of the highlights:
- Neha Suresh Kumar created a start-up aimed at changing the speed of API testing
- Nisarg Doshi combined his engineering skills with a new entrepreneurial mindset at 99 Tartans and an internship at Magna International
- Allan Gulley applied his learnings from the MIIPS Online program in real time to his role as a product team lead
- Daniela Decoud ran in the Pittsburgh half-marathon and worked on vehicle cameras as an intern at General Motors
- Mayank Arya embraced emerging technologies by studying and researching generative AI in the heart of Silicon Valley
- Molly Wiebe expanded her knowledge of UX research while working full-time as a consultant for YouTube’s Trust and Safety team
- Mark Yan gained a better understanding of the holistic innovation process while furthering his skills as a designer
- Shivani Ghuge created strong bonds with classmates and professors while growing beyond her area of expertise
78 Internships
During the summer of 2024, 78 iii students completed internships at companies like ServiceNow, Roku, and Volvo Group.
MIIPS students worked in roles like “UX Product and Industrial Design Intern” and “Innovation Ventures Intern,” where they honed their skills in integrated teaming by solving problems between software and hardware teams, conducting market research and user studies to make strategic recommendations, and contributing to product roadmaps.
MSSM students worked in roles like “Software Engineering Intern,” and “Product Manager Intern,” where they developed datasets for AI copilots, designed and implemented certification processes for product automations, and developed a carbon footprint tracking tool for an IT Management tool.
104 Graduates
This year, we were fortunate to host many celebrations for our accomplished graduates, welcoming 104 new alumni to our network!
- During the Spring 2024 MIIPS Diploma Ceremony, we recognized our inaugural class of MIIPS Online degree recipients, 2023 December MIIPS graduates, and 2024 May MIIPS graduates
- During the Winter 2024 MSSM Diploma Ceremony, we celebrated the classes of August 2024, December 2024, and (expected) May 2025 graduates, and awarded the annual Return on Education Award to Muhammad Ali Siddiqui (MSSM ‘10)
- During the Winter 2024 MIIPS Graduation Celebration, we honored our MIIPS class of December 2024 and awarded the annual MIIPS Changemaker Award to Hannah Kim (MIIPS ‘13) and Tomas Alvarez (MIIPS ‘13)
1,200+ Alumniii
With recent graduating classes joining the alumni network this December, we have now surpassed over 1,200 alumni in the iii community!
We highlighted a few stories this past year of what our alumni have been up to–from enriching student learning to sponsoring capstone projects to lending their time to alumni office hours and volunteer work, the iii alumni community continues to show up and show out for one another.
98 Courses
This past year, faculty and adjuncts taught 98 total courses over the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2024. That’s a lot of knowledge. This year, students:
- Turned from aspiring to experienced product managers in Product Management (MSSM)
- Designed product service systems in Introduction to Design Innovation (MIIPS Online)
- Modeled their own product launches in Understanding Markets for Products and Services (MIIPS Online)
- Redesigned existing experiences in Innovation of Services and Experiences
- Applied the innovation process to bicycling in Pittsburgh in Engineering Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (EDIE)
- Utilized AI concepts to improve health care for dogs in Artificial Intelligence for Product Managers (MSSM)
- Explored interviewing and ethnographic techniques of user research in User Experience Research for Digital and Physical Products (MIIPS Online)
- Implemented an innovation process to create a product concept in Innovation Processes and Tools (MIIPS Online)
- Studied the influence of materials, manufacturing, and other downstream decisions that impact the design of a product in Designing for Production and Sustainability (MIIPS Online)
However, professors had even more learnings to share in 2024! From teaching at an innovation workshop at CMU Africa to sharing insights into innovation teams and why entrepreneurial skills are essential for engineers, the iii was rich with new ideas and experiences to share.
