Overview

This transdisciplinary course equips students with innovation skills through structured, hands-on problem-solving techniques. Innovation is essential for developed economies like Switzerland to sustain their international standing and economic wellbeing.  

Students learn how to approach problems creatively, collaborate across disciplines, and develop impactful solutions. Working with practice partners, students tackle real-world challenges, contributing directly to solving these.

The area of focus is the digitalization of mobility—an area where innovation e.g., clean, autonomous systems or seamless public transport can address societal needs and sustainability goals e.g., by reducing environmental impacts or enhancing inclusivity. The course begins with input from lecturers across various disciplines, offering diverse perspectives to build a strong foundation for understanding and innovation. Then, students engage in doing: developing actionable solutions which eventually may be implemented by industry partners.

• its transdiciplinary character makes students, teachers, and industry partners think out of the box
• its interdisciplinary teacher set fosters novel approaches (such as peer teaching)
• it aims at innovation for etablished firms as opposed to generating start up ideas
• provides a coworking space outside traditional lecture halls, fostering creativity and teamwork

• its modular structure is designed to be adaptable, allowing various plug and play configurations
• it obliges students to work across disciplines and to change perspectives

• offer a course where students can (1) bring their competencies to life by addressing real world problems, (2) explore a current topic from the perspective of different fields/ disciplines, and (3) experience innovation by going through a design sprint
• build course on the foundation of connecting an interdisciplinary set of students, an interdisciplinary set of teachers, and practice partners

• provide a dynamic learning space where students build on their academic knowledge and apply it to real-world problems
• mimic the complexity of todays workplaces, preparing students for employment by teaching them how to integrate perspectives from different fields into effective, creative problem-solving
• equip students with a unique learning experience that they can showcase on their CV
• provide a lecture format that offers tools and skills for students‘ live that they can hardly learn in other university formats

• Create a win-win-win situation for
• Students: learn how to be creative and innovate, work in interdisciplinary teams, learn how to interact with researchers and industry, get in contact with potential future employers
• Teachers: provide room to experiment, leverage different teaching formats of UZH by enabling an exchange between disciplines and faculties, foster links with „real-world“ problems and industry applications
• Practice partners: access to talent, new ideas for their problems, image as attractive employer