The Sugar Global Innovation (SGI) is a program that uses a Design Thinking approach to undergo the student projects, working through technology research and opportunity formulation, and the chosen challenges starting from problem space exploration and need-finding, to the iterative cycle of ideation, experimentation and prototyping.
The structure of this program is divided into four different courses: three are hosted by Linköping University in Sweden and one at Aalto University in Finland. And these four courses form tracks that support each other through knowledge transfer as well as an overall approach to the given technology-based challenges.
Furthermore, this program is aimed at students from the mentioned universities, and as SGI uses a relay approach between the courses, the student teams must continue from a course where students from another course left off.
The SGI program utilises the Global Sugar Network, a global movement that connects universities worldwide, promoting excellence in design thinking education with a focus on human-centred solutions. And throughout this program, students explore the product development process extensively as they develop human-centric solutions and innovations.
SGI 2022-23 edition
The current edition of the SGI program, coordinated by Aalto University, is composed of 39 students from both universities and is divided into eight multidisciplinary teams, who are working first on researching and understanding the potential application areas of META-HILIGHT, IALL, Unicorn DX and PiPe4.0 technologies, as well as continuing some of the areas further to develop proof-of-concept prototypes, particularly in the selected beekeeping and urban farming contexts.
In the Final Gala, two teams will participate in the SUGAR Network Expo at Palo Alto, California from 5-7 June, where students will showcase the prototypes they’ve developed in their academic year-long projects.
More information about the SGI program is available here.
