ACIT4200 Interdiciplinary innovation and complex problems Course description

According to the United Nations, European Union and national governments, industry, civil society and academia, true innovation is only achieved through diversity. By leveraging diversity, interdisciplinary, international and inter-sectoral teams can actively work to solve the complex challenges found in society today. This course aims to train students to face the complex challenges faced by society including issues related to the ageing population, human rights, climate change, sustainable development, and the rapid growth in industrialization 4.0. The course will focus on experienced-based learning and gamification where students from multiple fields work together on a real-life local challenges with global implications. Students will work in collaboration with external partners including government agencies, civil society organizations and businesses in addition to leading researchers from across the globe who struggle every day with producing innovative solutions for their community's and the world's most complex challenge. While specific topics will vary, students will have the opportunity to choose among a variety of topics related to technology, innovation and society. Teams will be required to leverage their collective skills and experiences to effectively collaborate and produce new solutions to today's most complex challenges.

No formal requirements over and above the admission requirements.

Upon successful completion of the course, the candidate:

Knowledge

• Has an in-depth understanding of innovation processes including participatory design, co-design, and universal design methods
• Has an advanced understanding of relevant social challenges as articulated by the United Nations, European Union, and national governments including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Skills

• Can critically reflect on the role of diversity in innovation and the role of personal experience, implicit bias, disciplinary traditions, professional background, gender, culture, and other social identities and characteristics
• Can deploy innovation processes to critically identify and analyze social, organizational, or technical problems and produce novel solutions that meet the needs of local communities and reflect global aims and initiatives
• Can critically reflect and reflexively analyze their roles and biases as domain experts and identify and put into practice mechanisms for ensuring ethical, professional conduct, and diversity in teams

General competence

• Has an advanced understanding of how innovation and design frameworks and processes can be implemented in interdisciplinary teams
• Can critically explain and debate creative processes, including design thinking, creativity, deduction and induction.

Students will be working together in groups of 5 to 7 students. Each group will select a challenge with the goal to produce an artifact as a proposed solution. The groups will apply design thinking methods to narrow the problem and create a feasible and transformative solution.

Empathy and reflexivity are key components of the group's interactions. Ethics and professional code-of-conduct will be an area of ​​continued focus throughout the course.

The course will include a variety of online and in-person workshops and fieldwork, which will may include short presentations, discussion, product development, games, data collection, simulations, and other forms of group collaboration.

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can hand in the exam (Project artifact):

• 4 group exercises
• 3 individual exercises

A project artefact made in groups of 3 - 5 students, which may include any of the following

• 10 000 -15 000 word report or business plan excluding citations and appendices,
• 20-minute multimedia production including animations, video, and audio.
• Combination of a report and multimedia production such as an infographic, picture book, prototype, or other physical or digital media.

The exam can be appealed.

New/postponed exam

In case of failed exam or legal absence, the student may apply for a new or postponed exam. New or postponed exams are offered within a reasonable time span following the regular exam. The student is responsible for applying for a new/postponed exam within the time limits set by OsloMet. The Regulations for new or postponed examinations are available in Regulations relating to studies and examinations at OsloMet.

All aids are permitted.

For the final assessment a grading scale from A to E is used, where A denotes the highest and E lowest pass grade, and F denotes a fail.

Two internal examiners. External examiner are used periodically.

Associate Professor George Anthony Giannoumis