Innovation classes for transition and sustainable development

Teacher(s)

Macq Benoît; Marichal Xavier (compensates Raucent Benoît); Raucent Benoît;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Students are invited to apply to professors in charge of the course by sending a CV and a motivation letter by SEPTEMBER 21 at latest, by email to the professors in charge of the lecture. They will be able to register for this course only after having received the authorization.

Main themes

Design thinking, innovation, creativity, transition, user experience and adoption

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

• Identify / evaluate / improve innovative / relevant / realistic idea by demonstrating leadership in an uncertain environment in the domain of sustainability or transition; • Adopt a holistic approach to tackle socio-technical issues and innovate under constraints; • Develop and / or improve a product / service / technology following a rigorous innovation method which accounts for all the externalities; • Identify stakeholders / clients and assess their expectations; • Identify new Users Experience (UX) expectations from the innovation and assess them • Identify, mobilize and manage resources and networks needed to develop an innovation project (team, partners, consultants, resources, ...); • Identify ways to have potential users which could acknowledge the benefit(s) of a project; • To communicate, evolve, work in a team and develop a project in a multicultural and multidisciplinary context; • Be creative and bold, dare to violate the customs and dominant practices, demonstrate initiative and risk-taking. This course contributes to learning outcomes 2, 3, 4, 5 of the targeted reference system of competences for EPL students.

Content

This teaching is to make students aware of approaches such as Design Thinking, Lean startup and Effectuation. It also seeks the appropriation by the students of innovative design method and to learn the art of pitching. Those design methodologies will help the students to embrace the complexity of the capturing major societal issues including a user experience prospective, to step back and think about new ways of producing objects and services by integrating criteria of success which go beyond the technical efficiency and economic
profitability. This course will contribute to the development of the critical spirit of the students.
Concretely, it includes the following:
• Clarification of a request or an issue in the domain of sustainable development and/or the transition
• Finding solutions using methods promoting creativity and relevant user experience
• Prototyping solutions
• Assessment of the scalability, learnability and usability of the chosen solution
• Communication in the form of pitches
• Project management in a multicultural context

Teaching methods

The course is organised in two stages.
• two full days of kick-off: Introduction to design thinking through seminars and small-scale experimentations with a micro-challenge.
• project spanning over 10 weeks with weekly workshops from 6:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. every Monday. Throughout their project students will be supervised by professionals in the domain of innovation.
The project ends with a public presentation.

Evaluation methods

Students' learning outcomes will be evaluated on the basis of the following elements:
• At the end of each stage of the project, the students will write an individual summary of the learnings. The student must reflect on their choices and actions. These summaries will account for 50% of the final mark.
• The final presentation of the project by the group will account for 50% of the final mark.

Faculty or entity

> EPL