Challenge based education: an approach to innovation through multidisciplinary teams of students using Design Thinking

This work aims to describe and discuss the benefits and learning outcomes detected along four iterations of a learning experience carried out by three institutions: ESADE Business School, IED Istituto Europeo di Design and the Telecom Engineering School of UPC, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. Mixed teams of students from the three institutions face open innovation challenges with societal interest through Design Thinking. This study is focused on the learning outcomes of engineering students, compared to the ones obtained by Telecom engineering students that follow standard project-based courses. The students spend 3-4 weeks at IdeaSquare, a creative environment created at CERN Meyrin site in Switzerland, where they can consult and interact with scientists and knowledge transfer experts about possible applications and uses of CERN technologies in the student’s proposed solutions. One example of a prototyped solution is a low-cost sensor-based system to detect malfunction in water wells in Africa, which uses SMS-based communication and cloud-based solutions to manage wells repairs. As a result, the ICT engineering students increase their awareness of user needs and the relevance of the problems to focus on when tackling a complex challenge. They also increase their ability to ideate more disruptive and high-impact solutions thanks to their understanding of the "big picture" based on their interactions with design and business students.