Christensen Family Gift Endows Center for Student Design Education at Duke
The Christensen Family Center for Innovation in Duke University’s new Wilkinson Building provides state-of-the-art spaces and educational programs to teach students design skills through hands-on projects connected to the biggest challenges facing humanity and the planet.
The Christensen Family Center for Innovation is home to a bold effort to discover best practices that could make the difficult and often lonely process of entrepreneurship faster, cheaper, and easier to learn.
“Duke Engineering is honored by this visionary gift from the Christensen family, which has such strong ties to Duke and to thought leadership in innovation,” said Jeff Glass, interim dean of the Pratt School of Engineering. “The Christensen Family Center for Innovation is more than a space in which students will make things. It is a place where student teams will learn engineering design skills and gain experience by taking on authentic, real-world challenges and the big, important issues.”
Physically, the Christensen Family Center for Innovation has perhaps the highest visibility of any space in the Wilkinson Building. The center is located on the first floor by the main entrance, and includes:
- A maker space “garage lab”
- Prototyping and finishing studio
- Meeting and office space
