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..