As announced in the Point Com of 16 May 2022, the joint teaching project on innovation and Design Thinking was implemented between November 2022 and February 2023 under the leadership of Benjamin Katryniok. Second-year students at École Centrale de Lille enrolled in the “RED – Reverse engineering & design thinking” integration course were thus able to benefit from an initial internationalisation at home experience by working remotely on two projects with students from the Technische Universität Dortmund.
Benjamin Katryniok discusses the project’s genesis: “the initiative goes back two years under the impetus of the Department of International Cooperation of North Rhine-Westphalia, which sought to strengthen higher education cooperation between the industrial regions of Silesia (Poland), Ruhr and the North, regions that share economic and societal transition challenges. Centrale Lille answered present, and the participating institutions have converged on the theme of innovation methodology, as this makes it possible to combine the skills of each of the three partners. Several meetings have taken place between the partners to get to know each other and understand each other’s constraints”.
Thereafter, despite the project’s complexity and organisational differences between the three institutions, it was implemented fairly quickly, from the first exchanges to the delivery of the first course in November 2022. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, Polish students were not able to participate in the courses for this first session.
The joint teaching was particularly interesting because it highlighted the major cultural differences between the three countries (Germany, France and Poland). For example, by working on a Nespresso-style coffee machine, which is a fairly widespread and financially affordable device. The fact of having to ask the question of the uses and the very interest of the object for other countries was instructive and forced students to confront their user point of view directly. Not all students are called upon to work in innovation, but those who will do so must understand the value of working in a multicultural team rather than in an exclusively homogeneous environment.
An initiative that will lead to other projects
The success of this teaching serves to reflect on module spin-offs that depart from the current audience: why not have the students of the Ecole Centrale de Lille, ENSCL, ITEEM and IG2I work together? It just so happens that, in Design Thinking, the ideation part must be done in heterogeneous groups. This is valid not only for this project, but also for future projects; the system can even be deployed to other partner institutions in France (e.g. SKEMA or EDHEC).
With regard to Ecole Centrale de Lille, G1/G2 projects could be developed with a similar approach, particularly if we need an international vision for an SME project, for example… Other avenues can be imagined in other sections of Centrale Lille’s curriculum.
If you wish to develop this type of project, by all means contact Benjamin Katryniok who will be able to talk to you in more detail and give you advice.
Support from Erasmus+
Erasmus+ may also be involved in these projects, for example by financing mobility for a single day of consolidation (kick-off or final return). To find out more, the International and Academic Relations division reminds you that you can go to the workshop organised on 10 March 2023 at 12:30 pm in room A-025 (registration by email at ).