IA40110 Creative Thinking & Innovation

Academic Year 2021/2022

The aim of this module is to help postgraduate students and professionals access their innate ability for independent creative thinking and innovation, in its broadest sense, and to aid them in discovering the potential for the development of their new ideas in a multi-disciplinary team environment.

This module encompasses four different areas of skill development and learning:

• Developing confidence in creative thinking initially focuses on participants as individuals and mechanisms for developing effective multi-disciplinary teams. Team dynamics are explored through short challenges and altering team composition. Participants explore the different processes of idea creation and idea selection and experience first hand how they form and develop creative ideas around challenges
• Evolution of innovative ideas in multidisciplinary teams builds on team working through targeted activities where participants are introduced to cycles of risk, failure, self-evaluation and change as a means for reaching an end goal. Participants are immersed in processes including creative design and opportunity realisation where they are expected to utilise their networks as teams develop their project based learning activities outside the university
• Translating ideas into value creation brings the preceding two topics together. The definition of ‘value’ is explored in the context of the objectives and the perceptions of the various stakeholders and encompasses: economic, social, environmental and cultural. Participants develop their own tangible outputs which reflect the team values and skills of the team members.
• A hosted interdisciplinary team project provides participants with an opportunity to apply the substance of the three themes of the module to a challenge of practical importance to an external organisation. Teams of students embark on a short intensive project with a host from the public or private sector. These projects foster the potential for long-term relationships between peers and potential future patrons or employers. Teams showcase their outcomes at an event known as ‘Disruption’ to which all hosts, participants and interested parties are invited

This module is run as part of the Graduate Certificate in Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Enterprise



At the UCD Innovation Academy, we are a group of Educator Practitioners with extensive real-world experience as academics, educators, business and social entrepreneurs, tech thinkers, creative professionals and design thinking practitioners.

We take an action-oriented approach to learning, with a combination of individual, group and class tasks and activities, including discussions, presentations and reflection. All of our teaching is grounded in academic rigor, but our focus is on learning by doing in a real-world context.

www.innovators.ie

**Enrolment in an Innovation Academy module means a commitment to active participation and engagement, which necessitates attendance at all scheduled classes.**