Innovation Challenge Project
Overview
This unit provides the opportunity for students to experience and understand the challenges of working as part of an interdisciplinary team. Students will apply various creative problem solving tools and approaches to generate and develop innovative solutions in response to a real-world project brief. Students will develop project management and entrepreneurial skills in professional and research contexts for inclusive innovation cultures. Students will be coached by academic members of staff from different disciplines. They will be expected to engage in projects with high levels of self-direction that will include personal accountability and responsibility, while collaborating with others.
01-June-2025
02-November-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Apply judgement to planning and decision making for creative problem solving and user research methods, in relation to a given project or problem
- Deal effectively with constraints, timelines and project requirements that develop ideas into designed solutions proposed for a complex and/or large-scale project
- Articulate and justify project proposals to a variety of stakeholders using a range of written, verbal, and visual communication processes
- Effectively use prototyping techniques to communicate, explore and test ideas to develop an appropriate design solution
- Demonstrate entrepreneurial processes to develop and justify the business case of a proposed design solution
- Construct collaborative and inclusive management processes and skills to working in an interdisciplinary team in relation to a specific project
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Workshop | 1.50 | 12 weeks | 18 |
| Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Studio | 3.75 | 12 weeks | 45 |
| Online Contact (Phasing out) Online Learning Activities | 0.75 | 12 weeks | 9 |
| Online Contact (Phasing out) Collaboration | 14.00 | 12 weeks | 168 |
| TOTAL | 240 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Presentation | Group | 40% | 1,2,3,4,5,6 |
| Project Report | Group | 40% | 1,2,3,4,5,6 |
| Reflective Piece | Individual | 20% | 1,2,3,4,5,6 |
Hurdle
As the minimum requirements of assessment to pass a unit and meet all ULOs to a minimum standard, an undergraduate student must have achieved:
Show that you regularly address all requirements of the unit to a satisfactory standard.
Content
- Innovation culture
- Entrepreneurial mindset and decision making
- Interdisciplinary teamwork approaches
- Creative problem solving
- Idea generation and development
- User research strategies
- Communication and presentation techniques
- Lean start-up techniques and business model innovation
- Design and development processes for innovation
- Professional project documentation and presentation
- Project management and low hierarchy
- Adaptability and response to change
- Ethical and responsible conduct
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.