On July 25, 2018, Design Thinking Roadshow (Summer semester) was successfully held at the lobby of School of Entrepreneurship and Management.
Product prototypes developed by 25 groups of students that came from various schools of ShanghaiTech were displayed on Design Thinking Roadshow, competing for the visitors' “investment coupons”. Finally, “Sciboard Ink Keyboard”, “Trash.Zip Dustbin” and “Air Conditioner Drinks Cooler” won the highest amount of “investment”. The winning teams all reveal that user sensing, product testing, and rapid iteration are the three keys to their success.
Professor Ding Lu，Vice Dean of SEM, participated in the roadshow and experienced the product demonstrations of different groups. He noted that “Science People“, the theme of this year's DT Roadshow，suits very well the context of ShanghaiTech. There is a double meaning of this theme. On the one hand, it requires the students to identify the real problems that science people are facing. On the other hand, it encourages the students to use their competence of being science people to solve the problems. Many product prototypes illustrate these meanings, says Professor Lu. For example, “Sciboard Ink Keyboard” helps science people type special chemical and mathematical symbols more easily and efficiently. “Trash.Zip Dustbin” solves the problem of storing the trashes generated in labs and dorms. “APP of Shared Scientific Research Instrument” improves the usage of equipment and instruments in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, etc. These are all problems that science people are facing in their daily work. Meanwhile, the technology applied in these products demonstrate the knowledge and skills of the student-designers as science people.
Students from Design Thinking class remark that from this course, they learnt not only how to design products, but also how to solve the complex problems through the five stages of design thinking, based on the real need of users. Moreover, they all realized the importance and efficiency of teamwork, in contrast to their individual research in labs.
“Design Thinking is one of the featured courses of SEM and also a mandatory class for every freshman of ShanghaiTech University，” Lu points out. He adds that， through the Design Thinking class， students have learned to apply critical thinking in detecting the problems, identifying the opportunities, and solving problems through innovative designs with imagination and technical details. This is quite challenging for them. “I am inspired by the students' fabulous innovation and creative ideas embodied in so many novel product designs. I am pleased to see the achievements made by the teaching staffs of Design Thinking”, says Lu. He encourages the students to apply what they have learnt from Design Think class in their future study and work. He also expresses confidence in the teaching group to make this course even more successful.
