Building Hope: Designing Pathways for Insecure Futures

Course goals

During the Da Vinci Project, you make a prototype together with your group that solves a complex problem within the themes of circularity and sustainability. You employ the Design Thinking process in designing the prototype, which you get interactive workshops on. Moreover, you learn to build bridges between different disciplines by working together with students from the different faculties of the university. At the end of the project, you present the prototype that you and your group have made, to the stakeholders and other students.

Content

The Da Vinci Project is an interdisciplinary honors program available to students of all the faculties of the university. You work in groups of 4 to 5 students to design a prototype for a problem that stakeholders from industry pose. During weekly workshops, you learn about Design Thinking, which you use to design the prototype. On top of that, there will also be College Tours, in which you can ask experts in the field of sustainability about their expertise. These College Tours will be lead by you and your group. Each week, your group meets to work on your prototype. During these meetings, you also have the possibility of meeting with your mentor to consult on problems you are facing or to discuss your progress. You will reflect on these weekly meetings and your individual progress, as well as hurdles you face, in reflection reports. At the halfway mark, your group will present the first version of your prototype during the Dragon’s Den, a panel of expert jury members. They will provide you with useful feedback that you can use to improve upon your prototype. At the end of the project, you will present the final version of your prototype to the stakeholders and the other students during a festive closing celebration. Finally, you make an individual vlog detailing your experience during the Da Vinci Project. You will be graded based on the prototype, your reflection report and your final vlog with a Pass or Fail. You will earn 10 EC with the Da Vinci Project. These credits are extra-curricular and will be added on top of the EC you require for your regular study program.

Additional information

This course will be pass/fail.