Year 2020 has started and it is time to think about the hopes and dreams for the year 2020. First-ever HAMK Design Factory PDP sprint 1 is coming to an end and it’s time to look back a bit but also it’s time to look forward to this year and what’s going to happen.
Present
There are only couple of days left and the first part of PDP is coming to an end. We have had approximately 50 students working with six different projects from five different fields. It has not been all rainbows and unicorns, but students seem to be quite pleased with the course, which makes us very happy. We have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, and many presumptions have been proved very wrong.
PDP week in a nutshell. There are 4-11 students in the multidisciplinary teams working with the projects and solving the problems. Everyone meets on Tuesdays and during the evening we go through some theory, work with canvas and help the groups with their work. There are also workshops on Wednesdays and for now, we have had an electronics workshop and t-shirt workshop where students can receive more credits for doing the pre-work, coming to the workshop and doing the homework. There are some great ideas being designed and I can’t wait to see the results!
Hopes and dreams
Sprint 2 is about to start next week and we are developing it on the making but there’s only so much we can think and do beforehand. We have a good number of students continuing their projects and some students are moving to their other studies and internships.
Lessons learned at this point:
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- It’s all about communication, communication, communication… to students, clients and also to each other.
- More support to the students. We are here for them and face to face meetings really make the difference. Even though many materials are only online, being present gives a lot different support for the students. It’s about being in the moment.
- We need to build a better structure around the theory and doing. When those support each other, things are clearer, and students know why they do things the way they do.
With these things in mind, we can improve the upcoming PDP to make it even better.
Credits
This year we want to offer students all kinds of projects, where they can get credits. There are great smaller design and ICT projects going on but there’s also larger courses coming up. For example, the Data analytics project is starting in the 4th period in Forssa and we have a good number of students and companies ready to work together. We have also Rat Rely, Product development, IoT platforms, Cloud services, and Product Design courses coming this year.
During summer, we are doing some online studies so students can study throughout the year. Right now, we have planned Smart Design studies accompanied with Design Thinking. Last year we organized Smart Design studies, which were quite a successful course and students built a product for Iittala.
It’s all about communication
We want to be an easy place to come and go for students and companies so this year we want to concentrate also on that. We want to be more visible in the internal and external communication channels and be recognized in the area. Our aim is to reach more companies and have projects from a larger field.
It’s going to be one busy year!
HAMK Design Factory is part of Häme Design Factory project
