351-1138-00L PRISMA Capstone - Rethinking Sustainable Cities and Communities

Semester	Spring Semester 2021
Lecturers	A. Cabello Llamas, M. Augsburger
Periodicity	yearly recurring course
Language of instruction	English
Comment	Bachelor students get preferential access to this course. All interested students must apply through a separate application process at: https://mtecethz.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cx4ZghhYhQAY3nT Participation is subject to successful selection through this sign-up process.

Abstract	The goal of this intense one-week course is to bring students from different backgrounds together to make connections between disciplines and to build bridges to society. Supported by student coaches and experts, our student teams will use hands-on Design Thinking methods to address relevant challenges based on the UN sustainable development goals.
Objective	In this intense 7-day block course students will be able to acquire and practice essential cross-disciplinary competencies as well as gaining an understanding of a human-centered innovation process. More specifically students will learn to: - Work and think in a problem-based way. - Put their own field into a broader context. - Engage in collaborative ideation with a multidisciplinary team. - Identify challenges related to relevant societal issues. - Develop, prototype and plan innovative solutions for a range of different contexts. - Innovate in a human-centered way by observing and interacting with key stakeholders. The acquired methods and skills are based on the ETH competence framework and can be applied to tackle a broad range of problems in academia and society. Moving beyond traditional teaching approaches, this course allows students to engage creatively in a process of rethinking and redesigning aspects and elements of current and future urban areas, actively contributing towards fulfilling the UN SDG 11.
Content	The course is divided in to three stages: Warm-up and framing: The goal of this first stage is to get familiar with current problems faced by cities and communities as well as with the Design Thinking process and mindset. The students will learn about the working process, the teaching spaces and resources, as well as their fellow students and the lecturers. Identifying challenges: The objective is to get to know additional methods and tools to identify a specific challenge relevant for urban areas through fieldwork and direct engagement with relevant stakeholders, resulting in the definition of an actionable problem statement that will form the starting point for the development of innovative solutions. Solving challenges within current and future context: During this phase, students will apply the learned methods and tools to solve the identified challenge in a multi-disciplinary group by creating, developing and testing high-potential ideas. The ideas are presented to relevant academic, industry and societal stakeholders on the last day of the week. To facilitate the fast-paced innovation journey, the multidisciplinary teams are supported throughout the week by experienced student coaches. This course is a capstone for the student-lead initiative PRISMA. (https://www.prisma.ethz.ch/).
Prerequisites / Notice	Bachelor students get preferential access to this course. All interested students must apply through a separate application process at: https://mtecethz.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cx4ZghhYhQAY3nT Participation is subject to successful selection through this sign-up process.