Past Feature Stories

Ready to get creative? The West Houston Institute's IDEAStudio makerspace is open to all HCC students, faculty, and staff at no cost. As a member of IDEAStudio, you can learn to use cutting edge technologies like 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC machines, as well as traditional tools in our woodworking and metalworking shops.

HCC's West Houston Institute is excited to present "Building Your Maker Brand," a free 9-week cohort program for Small Business Owners who make and sell their own products and services. Kicking off January 25th, this program is for any stage of business and is designed to help entrepreneurs gain clarity around their current branding structure and strategies in order to effectively create content and sales based on their business goals.

Follow along with History Professor and WHI Innovation Fellow, Dr. Lauran Kerr-Heraly as she reflects on her evolving teaching practice, innovations in education, and her travels around the world.

We are excited to announce our 2022-23 West Houston Institute Innovation Fellows! Coming from across all areas of the college and representing both faculty and staff, this is another amazing group of creative thinkers and doers who will be taking on the complex challenges facing higher education today.

When Goodwill Houston saw a need to develop innovative strategic solutions to further expand its mission services and create added value for shoppers and donors, they turned to the Collaboratorium, the collaborative solution design center at HCC’s West Houston Institute, for assistance.

Houston Community College’s West Houston Institute (WHI) was awarded $750,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Join us this Spring as we talk Food, Healing, and Social Justice! This series of talks has been organized by Dr. Soyeon Lee in support of the West Houston Institute's Back to the Foodture interdisciplinary challenge. Three free events will be held March 10th, 29th, and 31st at 10:00am.

The West Houston Institute's IDEAS Challenge, "Plastic Planet Remix" has concluded its Spring semester program. A website has been developed by student innovator, Anh Vo, to share all of the projects as well as to provide information learned about the history of plastic and the problem of plastic waste in the environment.

This year, IDEAStudio has been looking at the problem of plastic waste through the “Plastic Planet Remix Challenge”. To keep things going as we all are work and go to school from home, we will host several virtual activities to celebrate the 50th annual Earth Day, April 22, 2020.

Faculty and students will work across STEM disciplines to research and apply current research and technological innovations to the problem of plastic waste. This collaboration of the HCC Engineering Center, West Houston Institute, Center for Digital and Information Technology, Life & Natural Sciences, and Mathematics Divisions is in support of the National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) - Harris County Community College Alliance (HCCCA) Grant.

Faculty and students will work across STEM disciplines to research and apply current research and technological innovations to the problem of plastic waste. This collaboration of the HCC Engineering Center, West Houston Institute, Center for Digital and Information Technology, Life & Natural Sciences, and Mathematics Divisions is in support of the National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) - Harris County Community College Alliance (HCCCA) Grant.

The data is in for 2018-19 and the West Houston Institute's Learning Commons, supported by HCC Northwest Libraries, is the most used Electronic Resource across the district.

The Collaboratorium played an integral part in the success of the #RealCollege 2019 Summit, hosted by the WHI in September 2019.

Cathy Clay, English Faculty and Innovation Fellow, was featured in the May 2023 installment of the HCCTV "Innovation in Education" series. The episode highlighted her "Inspired Garden" class project at WHI.

SEED Summer Intensive