Design Thinking and Innovation Course

The AI society program proposed two modes of training actions to be delivered to students belonging to different degree courses of the University of Padua who participated in the AI Society pathway. The course is free thanks to the support of the University of Padova and it will be limited to a maximum of 25 students, and it will be in English.

Information   www.aisociety-unipd.it/design-thinking-and-innovation-course/

To enable student participants to learn the basics of a concrete methodology to create and develop innovative ideas and actions. To this end, the course will be based on the Design Thinking method to guide students to learn how to present their ideas, maximize the feedback, develop innovative actions and build a business plan. Finally the students will have the opportunity to join a full day hackathon where they will have to solve a concrete challenge defined in partnership with companies participating in the project.

The proposal is structured in two parts:

Part I: Four two hours lectures, always from 5pm to 7pm:

    April 14 How to communicate effectively with a presentation: what are the main rules to prepare a presentation, tips and tricks to be effective and communicate a clear message, what are the best tools to use, practical exercise

    Tuesday 20 Idea generation: how to ideate in a group, what are the best tools for brainstorming, how to boost a group’s creativity

    Friday 23 Rapid prototyping: what is rapid prototyping and how to create a mock-up (a full-size model of a design or device, used for product presentations or other purposes.). How can you rapidly create a sample to perceive the audience feedback and reaction

    April 28 Business Model Canvas: a strategic management template used for developing new business models and documenting existing one. A case study on how to use the BMC template

Part II: a final hackathon day. Mid-late May, exact day to be defined.

    The purpose of this day is to offer an opportunity for comparison between the students who, divided into groups of 4/5 people, will have to solve in a day a concrete challenge launched by one or more companies by applying methods and techniques learned during the previous meetings. During the day, the students will be guided by the Azzurro Digitale team through an active teaching approach to the resolution of the challenges. Students will have to use skills such as teamwork, active listening, confrontation, idea generation, concretization of proposals. The Design Thinking method foresees to go through three phases: inspiration, ideation, implementation.