Amman- 19 April 2018
Under the collaboration between SAP NextGen and the German Jordanian University (GJU) and within the framework of the flying faculty program, the Office for Industrial Links represented by the Program Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) organized from 24-30 March 2018 a series of Design Thinking activities in which almost 100 students, staff and graduates participated.
One week full of different groups of students and faculties like biomedical engineers, design & architecture, industrial engineering with students in first semester up to master students and their professors as well as GJU alumni and SAP partners in Jordan participated in the Design Thinking Sessions conducted by Ms. Katrin Redmann, Innovation Lead of SAP SE University Alliances.
The lectures went from 1 hour to 2 days with a lot of experience in Design Thinking and resulting in prototypes and ideas to solve the 17 UN sustainable development goals, #GlobalGoals. The sessions took place during different GJU classes such as social entrepreneurship and storyboard and concluded by a two full days training workshop for GJU students and professors.
Professors and GJU staff were very satisfied with the results and highlighted the enthusiasm students brought into the workshops and lectures.
The Office for Industrial Links headed by Mrs. Britta Kähler, announced further activities such as learning beyond the governmental plans for education.
Eng. Jamil Alkhatib, Manager of the Program Innovation & Entrepreneurship (PIE) at GJU emphasized on the enormous advantages of learning agile innovation methods in diverse groups of students, professors, startups and employees.
During the 2 hours, open workshop in the innovation, entrepreneurship and co-working space “The TANK” by Umniah, nearly 50 guests joint the interactive session solving challenges of the UN Sustainable Goals. What a success!
Feedback of the students and professors were such as:”We should integrate Design Thinking in our regular studies”, “time was too short”, “we should like to learn more about design thinking on concrete challenges”, “good that we could choose our own challenges to work on during the workshop”.
Further activities and sessions are planned for the coming years to support the innovation and entrepreneurship culture at the university
T.S
