Iona University Students Help Bring Innovative Solutions to Westchester Communities
The Westchester Innovation Network's City Labs initiative connects Iona students with local municipalities through a unique, hands-on learning experience.
The collaboration provides students with hands-on experience applying design thinking to address community needs.
Iona University students are putting innovation into action through the Westchester Innovation Network’s (WIN) City Labs initiative, this time partnering with the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson to develop creative solutions to real-world municipal challenges.
The collaboration, facilitated through Iona’s Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the Business Council of Westchester (BCW), provides students with hands-on experience applying design thinking to address community needs.
The kickoff for the Hynes Institute design-thinking class’s City Labs project with the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, was held Monday, October 5.
Dr. Christoph Winkler, Founding Director of the Hynes Institute, presented an overview of the BCW/Iona City Labs partnership, which is now in its fifth year. Through the program, Iona University students have worked directly with 10 municipalities to address real-world community challenges and develop innovative solutions that support local priorities and economic development. He described it as students learning “outside the lines,” with the community serving as a laboratory, and he reminded the students that they are representing the university.
Dr. Aakash Sapru, Assistant Professor of Hynes Institute, who teaches the class, explained the design-thinking approach. Students go into the community to understand a problem from several angles (government, residents, businesses) and design solutions “with the community, not just for them.” The semester will end with prototypes the village could actually use.
“The larger mission here is for our students to get hands-on experience with real projects. Oftentimes, university education can become very abstract. At the Hynes Institute, when we focus on entrepreneurship, which is a very hands-on field, our goal is always to give our students experiential learning. The idea is that instead of just somehow coming up with ideas sitting inside a classroom, you actually go into the community, talk to people, and understand problems from various angles,” said Dr. Sapru.
Village Manager Mary Beth Murphy noted that communication and public buy-in are critical in government. If residents don’t feel an idea came from them, they tend to reject it out of hand. She also made a pitch for students from any major to consider careers in government.
The class will draft a problem statement by the end of next week and share it with the village for input on scope.
For this initiative, students are partnering with the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson to develop creative solutions to real-world municipal challenges.
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of over 4,000 students and an alumni base of 55,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Nursing & Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona also continues to be recognized in prestigious national rankings. Most recently for 2026, Iona has been named one of the nation’s best colleges by The Princeton Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report recognized Iona as one of top for social mobility in the country, while Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) ranked an Iona degree in the top 6 percent nationally for long-term return on investment. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business, meanwhile, is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just 6 percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review once again named Iona to its “Best Business Schools for 2025,” recognizing both its on-campus and online MBA programs. Connecting to its Irish heritage, Iona also opened a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland, located on the historic 400-acre Westport House Estate. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.