DCU Social Innovation and Design Thinking in Eindhoven

DCU staff and students recently took part in a challenging and interesting Design Programme for Transformative Practices organised by the Studio for Connected Society in the Department of Industrial Design in Eindhoven University of Technology. The programme took place in Eindhoven's Designhuis - a cultural centre fostering a more participative society via design thinking. DCU is a partner in the Erasmus+ project Strategy for Change social innovation training programme led by Glasgow Caledonian University. The project works in conjunction with the DCU Office of Student Life and the Glasgow Caledonian Student Association as well as the University of Aveiro and RISE Umeå, in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in designing solutions to social problems.

Following their participation in two social innovation hackathons on the DCU campus, organised by Dr Emer Ní Bhrádaigh and Úna Redmond, three students won scholarships to take part in a one-week training programme in Eindhoven, where they worked in groups with post-graduate students from Eindhoven, Aveiro and Umeå to develop ideas addressing community cohesion. In addition to presenting their own work at the end of the workshop, all participants had the opportunity to review the work of Eindhoven design students in creating a dementia-friendly society. The DCU students remarked that they had enjoyed the challenge of developing a completely new way of thinking during their study visit.

Last September, as part of the Erasmus project, DCU organised a conference on social entrepreneurship in INVENT, which was attended by over 40 delegates from the partner institutions and local organisations with an interest in this topic. DCU will also host students visiting from partner institutions in October 2017 to review DCU's Clubs and Socs Days and the Volunteer Expo. DCU students will also have the opportunity to take part in transnational visits to the partners in Glasgow, Eindhoven, Aveiro and Umeå in the coming year.

Further information about Strategy for Change and various student projects is available at http://strategy4change.eu/about-sfc/