BU Spark! Technology Innovation Fellowship Program

XCC 475: Fall 2026

COURSE INFO:

Instructor:

OTHER SPARK! RESOURCES:

Spark! Technical Team & EIRs: https://www.bu.edu/spark/resources/consultations/

Course Time: Monday, 2:30pm – 5:15pm

Course Location: CDS164 at 645 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 164

Requirements:

Online Application & Supplemental Sessions for

Pre-Program Discovery Sprint and Design Sprint:

• Monday, August 31st [9:00-12:0pm] Pre-Program Session I
• Monday, September 7 [5:00-6:30pm] Pre-Program Session II: Discovery Sprint
• Saturday, September 19 [11:00-5:00pm] Design Sprint Part I
• Sunday, September 20 [11:00-5:00pm] Design Sprint Part II
• Friday, December 11 [4:00-7:00pm] Demo Day/ XCC Project Showcase

COURSE OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

This course aims to provide students—working in interdisciplinary teams—an opportunity to advance a technology product or a technology innovation, through a human-centered design approach. The course provides instruction on the fundamentals of product creation and user experience design (UXD).

Students will have formally applied to the course and will have or will join a team with an approved product concept or problem in mind. While the overall course is designed to provide the structure of a typical product creation experience, students will be self-directed in the technical development of their project with the support of specialized mentors relevant to their project. Technical students will be paired with students who have a creative design background that can guide visual representations, user experience, interaction and information design. Where possible, we will also endeavor to have teammates who are focused on human factor research and human-computer interaction. The goal is for students to iterate over the course of a semester and launch distinct versions of a Minimum Viable Product (“MVP”) during the semester.

As of Fall 2026, this course heavily integrates AI in both the design and implementation processes. For the design process it will be used as a tool to evaluate student contributions and provide supplemental insights to consider in product direction and decision making. It will also be used to accelerate development, but students will be responsible for the outputs from everything generated through AI and we require disclosure and documentation of significant AI use. You can see the full policy and course expectations below.

CFA AR675: GRADUATE DESIGN TRACK COURSE OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

MFA in Graphic Design students are welcome to apply to the Graduate Design track of the Innovation Fellowship program with instructor approval. See more info on additional course work and deliverables here.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

As a result of completing this course, students will:

• Gain an understanding of product development and innovation processes including design thinking, problem scoping, customer discovery, validation, product design, visual design, low and high fidelity wireframing, and testing.