
Daria Koyts-Schwarz
Senior Instructor • Design Center Colorado Co-Director • Idea Forge Co-Director • Design Excellence Fellow
Located in the shadows of the Flatirons, a beautiful rugged rock formation on the edge of the Rockies, the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB) is blessed with a breathtaking setting. There we visited the IDEA Forge, a cross-disciplinary collaborative space where students can imagine, design, create, and test their ideas.
The Forge was in full flight when we arrived with groups of students invested in workshops ranging from design thinking to metal welding and 3-D printing. The variety of equipment available to students was very impressive.
We talked to Daria Koyts-Schwarz, Director of the IDEA Forge. She explained the approach the UCB takes with student startup ideas, “We are an educational endeavor, that is our core mission here. We are not here to make money”
The IDEA Forge’s goal is to assist both current students and alumni. “For alumni who came through and are looking for students to help on the tech side, we take their projects pro bono and arrange for them to get the support they need. It’s the best way we can give back”
The model implemented in Boulder has clearly been successful in producing startups. The relatively small city has consistently ranked as one of the nation’s highest receivers of Venture Capital Investment per Capita.
So how do people like Daria measure the success of their work? — “Our success is in the fact that we have been able to provide those opportunities that give back to our community, that give back to our students, that give back to the betterment of society.”
So what has been the secret to this success? According to Daria, in UCB it has been rooted in collaboration and iteration. The importance of collaboration at the University is clear when we learn of the physical bridge being constructed to connect the Engineering and Business schools on campus.
It is strikingly obvious from our discussion that there are passionate people driving the success here — “It took time to get the people around the table… You had to have people with thick skin driving it.” The process is not perfect but with the right frameworks in place a huge amount can be achieved.

