Scientists often need problem-solving skills in their academic careers, and design thinking is a creative approach to enhance these skills. It involves a deep dive with a concrete problem, observing users closely, generating multiple solutions, and rapidly prototyping one of them using the 'fail fast, fail often' principle. Participants were also encouraged to interact with students on campus in order to test their prototypes and proactively gather constructive feedback.
The workshop has provided hands-on experience with design thinking, guiding the participants all the way from understanding the problem space to the development of the solution. The workshop was for PhD students and post-docs, offering them an opportunity to apply the method among peers in a supportive environment. Participants had the chance to engage in the entire design thinking process, addressing a specific challenge, and no prior knowledge was required.
The workshop was organized by the Young Entrepreneurs in Science Initiative of the Falling Walls Foundation in cooperation with the University of Stuttgart, the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences and the Universities of Ulm, Konstanz and Hohenheim. Host of the workshop was the University of Stuttgart, more precisely the Elements4Founding (E4F) project of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI). E4F is funded by the Vector Foundation and is part of the Startup Campus 0711.
You want to learn more about hands-on research transfer and exchange with founders? Stay up to date about upcoming events on our website or by registering for the ENI newsletter: https://www.eni.uni-stuttgart.de/transfer/newsletter/, or send an email to our E4F team e4f@eni.uni-stuttgart.de and stay updated in our LinkedIn-group exclusively for early career researchers: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12779246/
Elements4Founding is a project of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI) at the University of Stuttgart. The objective of the project is to develop a holistic, integrated and sustainable approach to sensitize and qualify PhD students and post-docs for the topic of entrepreneurship over the project period between 2022 and 2024. Elements4Founding is funded and supported by the Vector Foundation.
