BASE is one of the Student Programs funded under ATTRACT phase 2 and aims to create innovative solutions for smart technologies and environments by leveraging the results from prior iterations, both from the technological and user understanding points of view. Its goal is to utilize interdisciplinary and user-centred approaches to generate tangible prototypes based on ATTRACT technologies that integrate user needs with technological capabilities.
Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) coordinates the BASE program in partnership with Aalto Design Factory and inno.space Design Factory Mannheim, and it benefits from the strengths of the Design Factory Global Network, which is a network that fosters global collaboration and innovation in product development.
“In the BASE program is expected that students use design methods to empathize with real users and take these findings as inspiration to come up with meaningful and desirable prototypes”, mentioned Jali Närhi, coordinator of the Student Program.
The program includes two courses designed to equip students with the skills to develop feasible prototypes using advanced technologies. The International Product Development Project (iPdP), hosted by HAMK and inno.space aimed at master’s and bachelor-level students who work on interdisciplinary projects, using different learning methods such as design thinking and phenomena-based learning, among others.
The other course is the Product Development Project (PdP), led by Aalto Design Factory and involves master’s students from technology, business, and design backgrounds, focusing on comprehensive project-based learning where students collaborate with industry partners to develop functional prototypes.
iPdP 2023-24 edition
The current edition of the iPdP course is composed of five teams and a total of 24 students from different disciplines like Construction Engineering, Computer Applications, Chemical Engineering, and Design, among many others and during this journey, they have to propose solutions to solve a particular challenge and work on a prototype and test it to see if it works.
More than half of the students from this edition are working with three ATTRACT technologies: h-cube, which aims to create a hyperspectral camera that works at room temperature and operates at the Terahertz (THz) range and sub-THz; HYLIGHT, which is developing a hyperspectral imaging device that classifies embryos based on their metabolic profile, minimizing potential harm and ushering in a new era of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments; and MEGAMORPH, which exploits the properties of graphene to make displays with ultra-high resolution for virtual and augmented reality with the Graphene MODulator (GMOD) technology.
During this period, students had the opportunity to participate in Master Machinery courses where they learnt the skills for prototyping using different machinery and other tools, while also providing them the opportunity to develop their personal skills. Additionally, they had their Halfway Gala, where they showcased their advances and received feedback that will help them to improve the prototype they will present at the Final Gala that will be held on June 19th at HAMK Design Factory.
PdP 2023-24 edition
The current edition of the PdP course is composed of 180 students divided into 16 teams, in which two teams (21 students in total) are working with ATTRACT technologies. The students work in multidisciplinary teams as they come from different backgrounds such as engineering, business and design.
In this edition, the two teams mentioned before are working with MEGAMORPH; Glass2Mass, which is about making small parts from fused silica glass, the purest glass available via the Glassomer Technology using UV Nanoimprint Lithography (UV-NIL); and Cleanwaters, which was a team that participated in the previous edition of the BASE program and which collaborated with Occam.Dx (former ECsens) as their R&D&I partner.
Throughout this period, students have participated in various activities that have helped them to come up with meaningful product ideas based on the provided ATTRACT technologies. They have attended workshops in Electronics, XR tools, Ideation, 3D printing, User validation, and Futurism, among others. They also had the chance to visit IdeaSquare, the innovation space at CERN, for an entire week to evaluate the direction of their projects, frame their challenges and explore some of the ATTRACT technologies such as POSICS-2, MicroQuaD and MEGAMORPH.
Students from the PdP course will have their Final Gala on May 17th, and their projects will be displayed around the Aalto Design Factory so that visitors can try their prototypes and get inspired.
Discover more about the BASE program here.
Get to know the students from the current edition:
