Stanford University’s Flagship Innovation Program comes to the University of São Paulo

Reinhold SteinbeckDesign Thinking, Education

Stanford University’s Global Design Innovation Program ME 310, which embodies the innovation energy of Silicon Valley, is coming to the Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo (USP).

We have all worked hard to make this happen, and are thrilled that USP and Embraer, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, will be the first Brazilian team to participate in this world renowned program. Later this month, Prof. Eduardo Zancul and Prof. Andre Leme Fleury together with their student team from Poli will travel to California to meet with their Stanford counterparts and launch the collaboration.

310Logo

Stanford University ME 310 Global Design Innovation Program

ME310 is a nine-month program where students from Stanford University and top global universities take on real-world challenges proposed by companies from all industries. Through the course of the program, students learn, apply, and experience the Stanford Design Innovation Process and many of its tool sets. The end result is a refined design concept solution delivered to the project partner, in this case Embraer.

The seeds for this collaboration were planted over three years ago, when I first came to USP as a Visiting Professor. Together with my colleagues at USP Leste, the eastern campus of the University of São Paulo, we established the first university-based design thinking program on social innovation in Latin America at the Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). The ‘Laboratório de Design, Inovação e Criatividade’, a.k.a. d-USPLeste, brings together students and professors in information systems, natural sciences, business, the arts, and the humanities and social sciences to learn about the design thinking methodology and work together with people from companies, startups, schools, local and national governments, and non-governmental and community-based organizations to solve complex societal problems in a human centered way.

IntoActions continues to work with USP as Design Thinking as an innovation methodology is being incorporated into new programs. Such programs include a new joint initiative to establish an innovation laboratory at the Fundação do Desenvolvimento Administrativo (FUNDAP) as well as a new design thinking course and laboratory at the Faculdade de Economia, Administração (FEA).

Stay tuned for more news about our projects with the University of São Paulo!

Relevant Links: