Creative Thinking & Innovation

Entrepreneurship is a significant driver of economic growth and job creation. It facilitates the creation of new companies, new markets and nurtures new skills and capabilities. Innovation and Entrepreneurship combined give rise new ideas, products, processes and services. Student entrepreneurs must learn to take risk and develop business strategies to bring these innovative products and services to market. The certificate programme will enable undergraduate students to be innovative and entrepreneurial in their approach to problem solving and addressing national, international and societal issues related to their discipline and beyond. It is a cross-disciplinary educational initiative that will be complementary to any area of study. It aims to combine theoretical concepts underpinning innovation and entrepreneurship with practical industry experience.

During this module the following themes will be introduced:

• Theme I: Developing confidence in creative thinking targets the student as an individual. The objective is to introduce the student to the inherent risk of failure in creative thinking but also the latent learning for the next cycle. The module is delivered through activity-based exercises at individual and group level.
• Theme II: Evolution of innovative ideas in multi-disciplinary teams targets team working in a creative context. Here, openness to new ideas and passion for ideas presented come into creative conflict. Case examples of organisations such as IDEO form a basis for group activities carried out both inside and outside of the seminar room.
• Theme III: How to translate ideas into value creation brings the preceding two topics together. What is value will depend upon the setting and the perceptions of the various stakeholders. Different types of value are envisaged: economic, social, environmental, knowledge. Working as individuals and as members of teams, the objective is to introduce students to the opportunity that innovators have to create or to destroy value.

• Target students: Master - PhD students

• Credits awarded to incoming students: 10 ECTS

• Dates: 9 - 23 March 2020

• Contact person: Terre Duffy

• Admission fee: None

• Application deadline: 15 January 2020

• Application procedure: Apply using the application form (Please include CV & motivation letter)

• Prerequisites: Engineering PhD students and students completing a Masters in Engineering.

• Language level: Minumum English level B2. IELTS or TOEFL certificate is prefered.

• Contact person administration: Anna Baczek

• Funding: Contact home institution

• Accomodation: More info can be found here