In a discussion with GDTA President Uli Weinberg, Richard Perez, Founding Director of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking (d-school) at the University of Cape Town, and Faculty Members Luke Doman and Mark Jackson talked about how they adapted their programs during Covid-19, using technology that is accessible for all students, and shared their vision for the future of the d-school at UCT.
In a discussion with GDTA President Uli Weinberg, Richard Perez, Founding Director of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking (d-school) at the University of Cape Town, and Faculty Members Luke Doman and Mark Jackson talked about how they adapted their programs during Covid-19, using technology that is accessible for all students, and shared their vision for the future of the d-school at UCT.
Richard is the founding director of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking (d-school) at the University of Cape Town. Funded by Hasso Plattner the d.school is a unique offering in South Africa that leverages the d.school network of both Potsdam, Germany and Stanford, United States. It is the only African School of Design Thinking that is officially affiliated with Stanford and Potsdam, drawing on the unique expertise, research and networks of these two institutions. Previous to this Richard spent 3 years at the City of Cape Town as the Director for World Design Capital 2014, where he had the unique experience of working to embed a culture of design-led innovation in a government administration. Before that he spent 10 years as a partner and director in an award-winning Cape Town-based New Product Design agency. He is also an external examiner for UCT’s Engineering Design course and spent a number of years lecturing UCT Architecture students on the Theory of Structures. Richard’s education includes a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town, a Masters in Innovation Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College of Science and Technology (London) and an Executive MBA (awarded with Distinction) from the UCT Graduate School of Business.
The last online session took place on November 21st, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. (CET). We welcomed our speaker, Can Güvenir, Design Manager and lecturer at Yaşar University.
At the GDTA PowWow on April 30th, 2021 Claudio Dell’Era, Associate Professor in Design Strategy and Director of the Observatory “Design Thinking for Business” of the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano talked about “Transformations in Design Thinking: from Creative Ideating to Critical Reframing“.
After 16 years of running projects using Design Thinking, teaching it, living it, Arne came to some important conclusions. During this session he shared these moments of clarity and darkness and left participants optimistic, energised and proud to be part of the Design Thinking movement.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
At our GDTA Spotlight session on November 12th, Maria Stashenko, Director, Design Thinking Center Moscow, talked about “Innovation Pace in Times of Pandemic: Research Insights”.
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“.
Remember the experiments and challenges you faced while starting a new project? Before 2019, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu didn’t dream a small idea would turn into so many new research projects, competitions to encourage students to innovate and the first D-School in Romania.
At the GDTA Spotlight session on April 26th, 2023, we welcomed Dr. Linda J. Hickman, Associate of the London School of Economics. She talked about “Design Thinking for Startups.”
Transform with Design presents examples of creative organizations across industries and geographies, and recounts the stories of how they adapted design thinking to build their innovation capabilities. Written by leading industry experts and design-thinking scholars, the book features ten anecdotal experiences by professionals who detail the implementation of design thinking as it unfolded for them. Contributors share how they navigated the many barriers and obstacles they encountered along the way and describe their experience from early beginnings to the present, revealing valuable lessons for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.
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.
In our January 2026 GDTA Spotlight, Ricardo Ruffo (Founder & CEO of Echos) explores how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping Design Thinking — from crafting outputs to stewarding intelligent systems.
Discover how AI can expand imagination, accelerate experimentation, and help teams reframe problems in entirely new ways.
On Tuesday, May 21st we held a free interactive 60-minute session with Maria Stashenko & her team form Design Thinking Center Asia. After a brief introduction everyone played a round of their game live online:
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.