CCFA creates Center for Innovation, Collaboration and Engagement


A research center in the College of Communication and Fine Arts was developed this semester with the intention of providing a space for innovation and collaboration between departments within the college.

Johnny Sparks, associate department chair in the Department of Journalism, and Jay Batzner, assistant professor of music, are co-directing the Center for Innovation, Collaboration and Engagement.

“We are both overseeing the initial semester of project funding and developing some of the processes and establishing a baseline of what the ICE center is, should be, what we want it to be, what the faculty want it to be (and) what the administration wants it to be,” Batzner said.

Sparks said the center is “a community garden for ideas” because it provides the space and resources for innovative and collaborative ideas.

“A center focus of the institute is innovation through technology across the spectrum of disciplines in the College of Communication and Fine Arts,” Sparks said.

He said the center is unique because of the various types of ideas and projects that could grow from it. According to him, collaboration at the center could result in research papers, teaching outcomes or new technology within music or theatre.

“CCFA is a fun collection of disciplines because we have some that are very research driven and we have some that are very arts driven,” Batzner said.

According to Batzner, they want it to be a place where faculty can come together and develop interdisciplinary projects.

“It’s a lot about community building, having a place to meet and also having equipment we can work with,” Batzner said. “Sometimes research is really, really lonely because you’re doing it all by yourself. Sometimes you’re working really hard on a problem that you find out later somebody else already solved. So those are some of the things we’re trying to combat.”

He said there are people in different departments that have similar interests and bringing people together can help stimulate more research and creativity.

“At it’s overly simple, some of our vision is almost a research matchmaking service,” Batzner said.

He said three projects have been funded so far.

“(The center) is supported by the dean’s office and that work is incentivized by grants that were awarded this year to support innovative, collaborative research that results in engagement,” Sparks said.

The idea was first discussed in the fall of 2012 with former dean of CCFA Salma Ghanem but it took some time for the initial resources to be collected.

“This semester represented the official start of the center with the allocation of resources for co-directors and the allocation of money for seed grants,” Sparks said. “An application process was completed (and) projects were funded and are in various stages of completion.”

A conference room in the fourth floor of Moore Hall was constructed since the end of the fall semester, which will serve as the physical space for the center.

“This will be the brain center of the operation,” Sparks said. “Hopefully it will represent a place where faculty within CCFA engage with students, other faculty, scholars and performers across the university community to produce innovative, technological breakthroughs.”

Batzner said there are still many different directions they could go with the ICE center.

“It’s a really new idea for us,” he said. “I think how it grows and what its goals become are going to change over time and I think that’s a good thing because what we want it to do now might not be what we need it to do three years from now or five years from now. I think that’s something we’ll keep in mind.”  

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