Aalto DF
Business Breakfast workshop brought together university and industry representatives to explore the future of university-industry collaboration in global context.
Third annual International Design Factory Week (IDFW) was organized 6.-10.10.2014 in Swinburne Design Factory in Melbourne, Australia. The week brought together family members from the Global Design Factory Network from 11 different institutes all around the world. During the week the participants shared experiences, planned future co-operation, and were brainstorming different collaboration possibilities and the potential of the global network.
Business Breakfast workshop was one of the events organized during the week. The Business Breakfast workshop brought together 20 representatives from different industries, 7 key executive decision makers from Swinburne University of Technology and all together 28 International Design Factory Week participants who represented 11 different institutes and universities all around the world. Hosting the event during the International Design Factory Week gave a unique opportunity to bring industry together with university representatives from all around the world.
The workshop was started with a delicious breakfast buffet and it continued with keynote presentations by professor Kalevi Ekman from Aalto University Finland and Leonie Walsh, Lead Scientist for Victoria. The aim was to unpack how universities and industry can collaborate even better, and how the Design Factory Global Network can bring value to industry.
“Industry representatives expressed the need for relevant projects, faster timelines, shifting the theoretical practice divide, trying new models of work and incorporating R+D with students.” – Anita Kocsis, Director SDF
Hosting the event during the IDFW gave a unique opportunity to bring industry together with university representatives from all around the world.
“The DFGN university partners demonstrated what students could do, what they wanted to know and how they were positioned to drive new thinking, experiments and prototypes beyond the normal scope of the everyday business plan and operational schedule.” – Anita Kocsis, Director SDF
This event was a great example how people from different backgrounds can share same passion and build on each other’s ideas to come up with concrete next steps for future collaboration
“Architect once politician hustled with chief scientist, university executive and robotics academic. Teams participated in ‘doing’ co creation.” – Anita Kocsis, Director SDF
11 Institutes from 4 different continents participating the International Design Factory Week 2014 in Swinburne Design Factory:
- Aalto Design Factory, Aalto University, Finland
- Duoc Design Factory, Duoc UC, Chile
- IdeaSquare at CERN, Switzerland
- Mektory, Tallinn Technical University, Estonia
- NHL University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
- Pace University, USA
- Philadelphia University, USA
- Porto Polytechnic Institute, Portugal
- Sino-Finnish Centre/Aalto-Tongji Design Factory, Tongji University, China
- Swinburne Design Factory, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
- Yonsei University, South Korea
Design Factory is a physical and mental platform devoted to creative, interdisciplinary industry-engaged research and development. It is unique collaboration environment for students, researchers and business practitioners.
Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) is a network of 5 innovation platforms around the world: It originated from Aalto University in Finland, but is now hosted also by Swinburne in Melbourne, Tongji University in Shanghai, Duoc UC in Santiago, and CERN in Geneva. The shared understanding and common ways of working enable the universities in the network to collaborate efficiently across cultures and create radical innovations. The goal is to be the leader in international university-industry collaboration beyond academic boundaries. ‘
International Design Factory Week (IDFW) is the annual opportunity for DFGN members and other Design Factory friends and enthusiasts to meet and plan for collaboration. Every year we spend the week in a new location to offer us the opportunity to learn more about the hosting Design Factory. We can then also expose the magic of the network to the host institution, this year the Swinburne University of Technology, as well as the local innovation ecosystem including industry.
More pictures of the Business Breakfast workshop: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk1RZ8hL
For more information about the DFGN
Website: http://gdfn.org/
Facebook: www.fb.com/globaldfnetwork
Publication: http://goo.gl/H0nLfl
#idfw2014