by Nick Camper
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark—College is a place where learning and opportunities are unlimited. Professors are around to help and clubs are there for support.
The McMillon Innovation Studio gives students a chance to learn outside of that traditional structure.
Located on the Harmon Avenue side of Harmon Parking Garage, The Studio sits and watches students pass by every day. Many people don’t know what it is or what it does.
The McMillon Innovation Studio is a workspace for UofA students looking to stretch the boundaries of college learning and the world of entrepreneurship. At the beginning of the fall semester, three teams are assembled to tackle a major business problem.
Health & Wellbeing, Supply Chain and Seamless Commerce are the three teams that call The Studio their home.
The students in each team, for the entire school year, work to solve a challenge in the business world. They go through a recruitment process to find team members. Next is figuring out what challenge they are looking to solve. Finally, they work out prototypes to find the best possible solution.
Jessica Taylor, Director of the Health & Wellbeing team, said she’s been given opportunities to learn she couldn’t find anywhere else. “The Studio has prepared me for any curve ball,” she said.
Taylor said every job she’s held her goals were to look at the bigger picture and find a way to streamline production. “I was kind of just focused on school, but then I saw [The Studio] open up and was curious and just talked to some of the Walton College directors who run The Studio,” said Taylor.
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For Canon Reeves, that is exactly the type of education he was looking for.
As a model of what the McMillon teams are striving for, Reeves is the CEO and Co-Founder of MORE Technologies. A company that teaches the next generation of learners how to code and 3D print through the construction of robots.
“I didn’t learn how to do any of this in a university classroom,” Reeves said.
A computer science major, Reeves came in as a freshman looking to solve real world problems right away. He found the repetitiveness and lack of challenges a bit boring at first, he said.
“Coming into The Studio, regardless of your major, is undoubtedly going to change your perspective because you are going to be exposed to a diverse group of people who think differently than you,” Reeves said.
Now a junior, he uses The Studio and its 3D printers to produce large quantities of robot parts per day. Not only do these machines work around the clock, but Reeves told me he gets up around 8 or 9 every morning and is in The Studio until 3:00am most nights.
Motivated to change the way kids are taught and experience technology, Reeves credits The Studio for his personal and company growth.
“I absolutely would not be here without The McMillon Innovation Studio,” Reeves said.