Global Innovation - Transdisciplinary System Perspectives for Sustainable Change

The master course GLOBAL INNOVATION is part of the master’s program in ‘Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design’ and provides students with an understanding of how multidisciplinary knowledge supported by theoretical insight and emerging technologies can bridge with the social needs and values of our societies to provide the best possible local and global futures. There are three kinds of student intake on this course – Engineering students, Design students, and Business students. These multidisciplinary students engage with local and international companies to train in the innovation process in multidisciplinary teams and work in an environment of collaborative creativity. This unique learning model empowers program participants with the right skills and methods to apply business, engineering, and design-led perspectives to complex societal issues by a co-creative approach. In doing so, the course guides students from various disciplines to further evaluate innovative products and services for a sustainable world. As a special feature of the program, and complimentary to the core academic studies, students engage with IKEA, the program’s main industrial partner. IKEA contributes with Democratic Design principles, latest methods and tools as well as workshops and tutoring to train product development processes in real time, thus giving the students a hands-on opportunity to corporate projects and providing them the opportunity to implement knowledge and practices in a multidisciplinary team to create a better everyday life for the many people. The uniqueness of this course is that it has students from three different faculties - Business, Engineering and Design. This brings together a diversity of competences, backgrounds and experiences to enable the innovation process and to address the environmental and social challenges that humankind is facing today. Eventually, the course deepens students’ understanding not only on knowledge and skills that influence the innovation process but also trains them in the professional way of working in a multidisciplinary context.