On June 27th, 2023 we welcomed Vindhya Umapathy, Design Thinking Lead at CMR University (Bangalore, India). She spoke on the topic of “Fostering Design Thinking Mindsets amongst University Students“.
In this spotlight, CMR University shared its best practices and initiatives in developing the design thinking mindsets for students across all disciplines in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The session focused on their initiatives in building a mandatory course for all students, CAUSE – a global open innovation challenge, their space for creative collaboration- the ‘Design Thinking Lab’ and an upcoming initiative – the ‘Design Thinking Club’. The session also opened out to a short discussion with the audience on ways to build mindsets such as curiosity, empathy, grit, a sense of experimentation and collaboration among students.
Vindhya Umapathy is the Design Thinking Lead at CMR University. She has diverse experience of close to a decade in the fields of Design Strategy, Education and Architecture. She is driven by the impact of design on creating positive social change. As the Design Thinking Lead at CMR University, Vindhya has played a key role in designing the curriculum for all the Design Thinking courses offered by the Dept. Common Core Curriculum, she has facilitated workshops and semester-long sessions for students and faculty at the University, co-designed the space for creative collaboration – the ‘Design Thinking Lab’, and supported the launch of the annual flagship event- the ‘Design Thinking Day’ and the launch of the Global Open Innovation Challenge- CAUSE 2023.
Prior to working with CMR University, Vindhya worked as a Design Strategist with Spread Design and Innovation in Bangalore and has completed her Post Graduation in Interdisciplinary Design Strategy at the Institute without Boundaries (Brookfield Sustainability Institute), Toronto. She has also worked as a teacher in a public school in Chennai as part of the Teach for IndiaFellowship and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture.
Vindhya believes that in order to design things right, we start with the question ‘Are we designing the right things?’ – she has helped both students and organisations better understand their stakeholders in order to design for a better world – be it through products, services or experiences..
At this GDTA session on June 15, 2021, Alejandro Rodriguez, Associate Director for Industrial Design Department at Tecnológico de Monterrey, and his team talked about “Education and Design Thinking: How Tecnológico de Monterrey is applying Design Thinking across all their campus, education and innovation.”
Michael Lewrick, bestselling author of The Design Thinking Playbook and AI and Innovation, leads an inspiring session exploring how Artificial Intelligence is transforming Design Thinking practices worldwide.
How can Design Thinking drive real change? Since 2015, Impact Week has evolved from a volunteer initiative into a thriving social enterprise, empowering communities, fostering skills, and sparking impactful social businesses.
How passion, collaboration, and persistence turned an idea into a thriving business. Born from one of the first cohorts of the D-School Potsdam, Dark Horse defied the odds to become a sustainable business venture.
At our GDTA Spotlight session on December 14th, Prof. Dr. André Bresges, Executive Director of the Institute for Physics Didactics at the University of Cologne talked about “Teach to Start Up”.
In a discussion with GDTA president Prof. Uli Weinberg and other GDTA members, Linlin Shui, Head of the Design Thinking Innovation Center at the Communication University of China (CUC), shared impressions from China during the Covid-19 pandemic and explained how CUC build a prototype for an online Design Thinking course in only two weeks.
In our session held via zoom on Mai 12th, 2022 at 3:00 pm (CEST) / 09:00 am (EDT), we welcomed our speaker Mugendi K. M’Rithaa, Professor of Industrial Design at Machakos University. Mugendi talked about “Empathy and Community: Human-Centered Design in Afrika”
“Beyond the Prompt – Orchestrating Human-AI Agency”
“Design Thinking is not Enough” – Design thinking has taught a generation of innovators to empathize, ideate, prototype, and test. It has reshaped classrooms, organizations, and how we talk about change. And yet despite decades of user-centered design, we are still failing to meaningfully shift many of the systems we care most about.
In our session held via zoom on February 17th, 2022 at 3:30 pm (CET) / 9:30 am (EST), we welcomed our speaker Jeanne Liedtka from UVA Darden School of Business.
Join Arne van Oosterom for a powerful GDTA Spotlight session on 3 essential mindset shifts for the future: curiosity, adaptation, and relationships.
At our GDTA Spotlight session on May 23rd, 2023, we welcomed Guido Caicedo, Executive Director of i3lab, Dr. Sharon Guamán-Quintanilla, Academic Coordinator, and Isabel Alcívar, Lecturer and Design Thinking Facilitator. They discussed about “Turning freshmen into DThinkers.”
On September 12th, 2023 we welcomed our speakers Jessica Menold, Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and also Dr. Matt Parkinson, Professor of Engineering Design and Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University.
The GDTA Spotlight session on March 23rd, 2023 was about “Art thinking and design thinking in University College Cork: An innovation ‘marriage’ made in heaven.”
In our session held via zoom on March 10th. 2022, from 9:00 – 11:30 am (EST) / 3:00 – 5:30 pm (CET) via Zoom, we collaborated with the IEEE Standards Association and Vienna University of Economics and Businesss to talk about “Value-Based Engineering in Design Thinking”. For more information about the event, agenda and speakers please visit the GDTA Spotlight Special website. […]
Design Thinking has been reshaping the minds of many students and professionals globally for the past 20 years and is fast becoming the winning mindset that drives innovation and solutions to complex problems of our time. The mindset has seen major support from academia and professional networks with some great expansion over the years.