SC Innovation Awareness Month (IAM) Featuring MUSC Innovation Week 2025

In 2023, our office worked in tandem with the State of South Carolina to earn the governor's office's designation of April as South Carolina Innovation Awareness Month (IAM), bringing attention to the state’s growing innovation ecosystem. MUSC hosts events throughout IAM, including our annual Innovation Week.

Since 2018, MUSC has celebrated Innovation Week, our five-day celebration geared towards empowering the MUSC Enterprise to imagine creative solutions for a variety of healthcare challenges. Featuring several award and pitch sessions, the week highlights how MUSC is "Changing What's Possible" through innovation.

This year, our Innovation Week will be held April 21-25. Events are still being added.

April 17, 2025 – Learning Circles Jigsaw

2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Colbert Education Library Classroom, EL 340

Link to join via Teams

This forum features lightning sessions (7 minutes each) where faculty and staff share strategies they are planning to apply or have already applied to enhance teaching and learning. Held twice per year in Fall and Spring, this session is inspired by the Cooperative Learning Jigsaw Strategy and typically lasts 90 minutes.

April 17-18, 2025 – Flowjam: A Notable Flow Builder Hack-a-thon 

Times are set based on registration

Location: MUSC Charleston – Blue Sky Landing, 280 Calhoun St., Suite QF109

Join other Clinician and IT innovators to build their own digital workflows to address true solutions to solve problems in this 2-day session. Work with Notable engineers to first learn about the technology and then actually build the innovative solutions in real time.

Identify the value proposition, and work to present a pitch to win bragging rights and have your flow be put into practice.

Interested in joining the innovative team?  Sign up with Brojc@musc.edu by 4/1.  (2 or more participants to be part of the team).

April 18, 2025 – Advancing SoTL: Insights and Innovations with A.I.

8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 

Location: MUSC Charleston –BioEngineering Building, BE110 

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning invites you to explore how AI is advancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) with leading educational experts.  Join us for a day of insights, innovation, and collaboration. Lunch and light refreshments will be provided. 

Please register in advance here.

April 21, 2025 – Student Pitch Competition

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Dream Studio, MUSC Library, 1st Floor

Students will pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win prizes. We’re excited to welcome new judges and showcase some amazing student work.

April 22, 2025 – Innovation Showcase and Stress Less Bash on The Greenway

11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Medical District Greenway

This year’s Stress Less event will combine the most popular activities from years past! Attendees will be able to view posters, meet members of MUSC’s Innovation Ecosystem, enjoy refreshments, live music, games, and stress-reducing activities, and engage with MUSC’s Center for Workplace Well-being Team to assess the stress using Stress First Aid’s (SFA) evidence-based framework. They can also sign up for SFA training to better identify stress reactions in themselves and team members and learn about practical actions to help reduce the likelihood that a stress reaction develops into a more persistent or severe challenge. There will be free king of pops' popsicles for the first 150 participants.

April 23, 2025 – Open House, hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research

4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Basic Science Building, BS101

Please join us for a special open house with the Vice President for Research as a part of MUSC's Innovation Week. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about vice president for research Timothy Stemmler's vision for the future of research at MUSC and share your own ideas, ask questions and network with others in the research and innovation community.

Click here to register.

April 24, 2025 – National Academy of Inventors Ceremony (by invitation)

3:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Drug Discovery Lobby

Hosted by the Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization, this annual event recognizes innovative champions who have been inducted into the National Academy of Inventors.

Awards are also bestowed for leadership, mentorship and collaboration.

April 25, 2025 – Brady/Lydiard Excellence in Psychiatry Research Day

12:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Institute of Psychiatry Lobby

Join us for the inaugural Brady/Lydiard Excellence in Psychiatry Research Day! The keynote speaker is Dr Michael Mithoefer, MD speaking on Why Psychotherapy with Psychedelics?

Observations from 20 Years of MDMA Clinical Research. The poster session will begin at 2:00 p.m.

Please register here.

April 28-30, 2025 – DREAM Studio Tours

11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. each day

Location: MUSC Charleston – Dream Studio, MUSC Library, 1st Floor

Open tours for anyone interested in exploring the DREAM Studio and learning more about its 3D printing, VR, and design thinking resources.

April 30 – May 1, 2025 – Neuroscience Symposium

April 30, 2025, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

May 1, 2025, 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Location: MUSC Charleston – Bioengineering Building, BEB110

Please join us as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Department of Neuroscience at MUSC and celebrate the career of Dr. Peter Kalivas. Dr. Kalivas is the Founding Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and is a pioneer in developing the glutamate neuroplasticity hypothesis of substance use disorders. Drs. Nora Volkow (Director, NIDA NIH) and George Koob (Director, NIAAA NIH) will be providing keynote addresses as well as several distinguished nationally and internationally known researchers and a few of Dr. Kalivas's former trainees.

Register here.