Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Design Education for Future Practice May 12 -2020 · 21 min read (original) (raw)

Entrepreneurship in Future Design Education

2011

Design Methods and Design Thinking have become important elements in innovation and entrepreneurship processes. Introduction of design subjects into business and engineering educations shows this. One could also mention the success of IDEO publications, presenting state of the art design methodology, stressing user focus. An increasing number of innovations directly address or involve end users, by offering immaterial products; services, leisure etc. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU has focus on Entrepreneurship and innovation and is amongst the leading universities worldwide when it comes to university-business cooperation. NTNU has an active TTO (technology transfer office), the NTNU School of Entrepreneurship is well renowned after 5 years of operation, and in 2010 a new vice rector position was established with responsibility for innovation and business cooperation. Working with the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) at NTNU education we also observe student...

Future Pathways for Design-Driven Entrepreneurship Education

Cumulus Conference Proceedings Wuxi 2018 Diffused Transition & Design Opportunities 31st October-3rd November, Wuxi, China, 2018

Designing in and for transition, within contexts of constantly changing certainties and boundaries, demands new models of pedagogy; capable of building deep competencies within students beyond the studio’s borders. Academia is facing radical disruption as students demand a redefinition of education (Traitler, Coleman and Hoffman, 2014). This transformation must be applied within design education. How do we educate designers to design for present ambiguity and future uncertainties in a world with radical complexity and wicked problems? Parsons ELab is a design-driven academic business incubator and research lab with the ambitious mission to develop a distributed academic incubation model. Our research investigates how to transition design education and its evaluation, create models for future academic distributed incubators, and new research methodologies to incubator and accelerator research. Conventional incubation research is focused on understanding the financial impact of incubees through their period of incubation (Messeghem et al, 2017). Parsons ELab has developed a mix of deep qualitative and quantitative research over the past four years. Our research offers us a unique perspective in evaluating the educational, financial and social impact of our program. We find a need to challenge conventional approaches to both entrepreneurship research and education. Our findings develop necessary practices in the implementation of a distributed academic incubator model. ELab continues to refine its methodology as it works towards a roadmap for other educational institutions seeking to encourage design-driven entrepreneurship. Our work expands definitions of impact to include the cultural and environmental. As we identify new transitions and needs for design-driven, entrepreneurially-focused education, we look to develop new pathways for design students to develop critical competencies.

Crafting innovation education through design in a business school

In a recent article of Co.Design, Quinn (2012) describes the Rotman Design Challenge as a ‘commendable experiment by the school’s Business Design Club to expose MBAs at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management to the value of design methods in business problem solving’. Her call for a meaningful reinvention of both design and business education so that the business world can realise the true value of design thinking is not new. At the 2009 EAD conference in Aberdeen, Scotland, we – the authors – presented a paper identifying the same points but from the perspective of a business school’s educational paradigm. We believe that the change does not have to be a radical overhaul of the educational system in business and design but, rather, a more disruptive process from within where focus on innovation can provide a common platform for both business and design education to exchange tools and methodologies. In design education reliance on artefacts as a teaching tool and critical aspect of learning about the design process are standard practice, but this is not always the case in business education. This paper therefore investigates the impact of designing an artefact by business students in the process of innovation as part of their ability to generate new ideas, empathise with users and reflect on process. The paper draws on observations of students’ engagement in the process of innovation substantiated by students’ reflections on their own development as well as insights from staff delivering the module. It also draws on the artefacts themselves created by the students. The methodology underpinning the research stems from participatory action research. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how well established techniques from within design education can be used as disruptive processes within business education to craft innovation education in a business school environment.

RETHINKING DESIGN EDUCATION

This Study explores the extent to which the changes brought by new socio-economic paradigm shift and its influence on social and economic behaviour in the last 20 years are reflected in design education and practice. Furthermore, this Study attempts to identify the root causes of design education and design curriculum content maladjustment to the needs of contemporary era. It also identifies the current challenges design education is facing today. Theoretical and empirical research results, particu - larly in the form of knowledge, skills and competencies, served as the ground for proposing appropriate guidelines for the improvement of current design education and the content of the design curricula. The results of the Study reveal theoretical and empirical evidence that confirms the assumption about the current mismatch between knowl - edge and skills acquired in formal design education and skills needed in current and future design practices. This mismatch is mostly related to the managerial and social skills needed for solving problems and demands of real life design practice and to a smaller extent, to practical design knowledge and competencies. Therefore the Study argues that design education should be carried within a multidis - ciplinary context, which will embrace all necessary knowl - edge, skills and competencies needed for future successful professional design practice, and that design education should be more practice-based oriented, allowing students Abstract to work on specific real life projects. Since the evidence suggests that educational institutions in their attempts to provide additional skills and competencies are faced with financial and bureaucratic constraints, which create a gap, or lack of professionals from other specialist disciplines, design education institutions should consider finding alter - native sources for financing those specialist and alternative ways of training students in deficient disciplines or skills. Furthermore, the Study argues that there is a need for finding more ef fective way of transferring economic knowl - edge to design students and that the business sector and other interested parties need to better learn each other ’s languages in order to achieve more productive communi - cation. Design educational institutions should present their students the importance of business management and raise awareness of the business sector about the value of design. Key words: Design Education, Design Practice, Skills, Competencies, Challenge, Knowledge Society