Social Design:
employing a technique of process-driven innovation, to find creative, practical solutions to human problems.

“What has changed is technology,” she said. “It has totally changed the rate and accessibility of the exchange of information and resources.”

The advent of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, Gerber said, has made more students aware of problems in different parts of the world, and this awareness is often the spark of social innovation projects.

“[Students] know the problems that they’re passionate about solving and they know why they want to take the classes that they’re taking so they can solve the problems they want to solve,” Gerber said. “It’s more of a factor of awareness.”

This awareness brought about by social media is multi-faceted. By interacting online, students have more opportunities to see social design role models.

“Because of Facebook and other social media platforms, students have the opportunity to see many more people doing things,” Gerber said. “They see their potential as so much greater.”

In line with Gerber's observations, the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report found that the U.S. population is generally more entrepreneurial than other similarly situated populations. Specifically, only 32 percent of the U.S. population has a fear of entrepreneurial failure compared to a developed-country average of 39 percent, and conversely 43 percent of the U.S. has perceived entrepreneurial opportunities compared to an average of 31 percent.

While most of the students involved in DFA are engineering majors, participants come from diverse academic backgrounds. Often, as Gerber suggested, they are inspired by problems they see in the real world or their own lives.

In the end, Gerber explained that one of the things that makes social design significant is the way projects are evaluated.

“Society grades you,” she said. “Did you do something for them, or not?”