The school comprehensively face the various challenges in the EIT Raw Materials found e.g. in primary resources, substitution and recycling. With respect to traditional Summer schools, TOP STARS 2018 combines focus-lectures of academics and practitioners, project work, field and usability tests, customer validation work, field visits and socializing events. Focus is put on harmonizing the technical capacities with soft-skills such as: business project work, team building, (personal) networking, cultural exchange, knowledge on interaction between ethics and society and creation of a global awareness of societal and business trends.
In the school, students are confronted with participating stakeholders (companies and start-ups) to consider the sustainability and relevance of their ideas. The course emphasizes multidisciplinarity and draws attention on specific components related to; conceptualization of usability and technical realization; and commercialization (marketing plan and business realization) of their ideas. The applied approach is based on the following pillars:
Throughout the Summer school, students will work in teams of 5-7 participants to craft and develop into project-ideas the solutions they have identified to address the technical problems presented to them. A selection of initial use-cases are planned to be provided in cooperation with partner companies participating in the Summer school.
The whole initiative is valued 10 ECTS.