Olin College President Richard Miller, a prominent voice in the movement to reform engineering curriculum, explains how higher education can create more innovators by better integrating studies that have traditionally segregated students, in order to show them that the potential for large-scale impact is at the intersection of feasibility, viability and desirability.

Olin College of Engineering's Richard Miller points out how some of the tech industry's most iconic entrepreneurs were not even engineering majors and how the success of Facebook stems from its ability to satisfy a basic need rooted in human psychology, not just technical genius. Miller cites research by others showing that improvisation is a necessary skill for innovation.

Richard Miller, president of Olin College of Engineering, explains the importance of grit and mindset over traditional intelligence. Beyond equipping engineering students with formal skills, the nationally ranked university makes creativity and entrepreneurship core to its curriculum. "Twentieth-century innovators require a lot more than technical knowledge," Miller says.

In discussing how education is moving away from a prescriptive model to one that encourages more autonomy, Olin College President Richard Miller contrasts older tenets of learning with newer principles. These include long-held beliefs such as learning before doing, versus learning experientially; or that teaching is necessary for acquiring knowledge, versus learning independently.