Project introduction and background information
The nature of innovation has changes drastically in the last 150 years. Many technological breakthroughs in science and technology in 19th and beginning of the 20th century have been accomplished by individuals. Nowadays, multi-disciplinary teams work together on innovations. The TU/e follows this train of thought and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration in education. We believe this approach can be integrated in the new TU/e Innovation Space by creating lighting-related labs with the support of an industrial partner within the Lighting Flagship. Projects in "Innovation Space - Intelligent Lighting" will encourage students to draw form their creative abilities while being trained on a particular project. The lighting domain is particularly interesting as it integrated technological innovation, application innovation, business model innovation and changes in user behavior. The multi-disciplinary character is a deep-felt challenge in the industry, and through this project we can create talents that are prepared for working in such environments. The current courses in the faculties and USE learning lines do address the multi-disciplinary aspects, but the impact can be increased through collaboration with TU/e Innovation Space and explicit inspiration of the industrial context provided by the lighting flagship. This creates a win:win:win situation for the students (education and insight in a multidisciplinary professional working environment), the university (shaping their education towards the true needs of the innovative industry) and the partners (identifying talent before graduation).
Objective and expected outcomes
Key objectives of this project are:
- Creating of lighting-related working environments in the new TU/e Innovation Space
- Successful pilot of a multidisciplinary student working group using that space
- Dissemination of project products on the ILI website and showcasing them on the ILIAD (ILI's annual outreach event)
- Dissemination of the results to key stakeholders in the 4TU.CEE community
The proposed project will create general means to allow formulating new student projects not only during, but also after the completion of the project. All necessary processes will be tested and put in place such that lighting-related projects can continuously be worked on - all necessary phases (defining a new project, putting together a suitable multidisciplinary project team, running the project and completing the project) can be carried out in parallel with several project ideas. Implementing this approach will create a revolving cycle and dynamic community of participating students and (industrial) experts. The project will be "sustainable by design".
Practical outcomes
See the end report of this project at the downloads.