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ArticlesATTRACT stories: TeSI program (please, accept the cookies to see the video)
Project at a glance
- Addresses important social needs by identifying disruptive applications and business models for cutting-edge technologies.
- Uses ATTRACT technologies as the starting point.
- Multidisciplinary student teams from the three Fusion Point partner schools.
Public summary
Technology for Social Innovation (TeSI) aims to address important social needs by identifying disruptive applications and business models for cutting-edge technologies developed under the ATTRACT initiative. Through multidisciplinary student teamwork, this course brings together business management students from ESADE Business Schools, engineering students from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and design students from Istituto Europeo Di Design (IED). As distinct from other Challenge-Based courses, TeSI takes as its starting point a subset of the breakthrough technologies within the European Union’s ATTRACT program.
The course helps students develop the following competences:
- Identifying, developing, and assessing the potential impact of novel technologies in addressing societal needs.
- Ability to communicate clearly and argue for decisions made in an innovation project.
- To lead their own work in an independent, proactive manner.
- To lead work in an explorative project involving constant reflection and adaptation to new information as it is acquired.
- Ability to work and efficiently collaborate in a multidisciplinary team.
- Understanding and appreciating diversity between business, design and engineering.
Student teams work for 15 weeks with projects that are pre-selected following a user-centred design process (Design Thinking and Lean Startup). The student teams start by exploring the ATTRACT chosen technology and then seek out areas of social need where that technology might provide a solution. While developing the solution, the teams receive support from the coaching team, go through a two days ideation process at CERN IdeaSquare and have several touch points with the scientists of the involved research centres. The teams will develop a new solution concept and present a proof-of-concept prototype and business model in the Final Presentation of the course.