2008-04: The Division of Functional Product Development and the Product Innovation Engineering program (PIEp) co-organized a workshop on the theme ‘Turning Foresight Thinking into Action’, held at Stanford University between March 31 and April 4, 2008. The workshop drew a total of 25 participants from Luleå University of Technology, Lund University, Royal Institute of Technology, Center for Technology, Medicine, and Health and Jönköping University.
Professor Larry Leifer from Stanford’s Center for Design Research and Dr. William Cockayne from Stanford’s Center for Critical Foresight facilitated the workshop, noting that innovation doesn’t occur overnight. In order to be an innovator, you have to take a long-term approach. The workshop gave participants a new set of tools for and experience in long-range innovation for developing strategic business opportunities. During the week, participants explored critical foresight, anticipatory research, and comprehensive design within teams and identified prospects for increasing the level of innovation in their respective domains. Multiple team exercises enabled hands-on learning, with examples drawn from a wide-array of industry studies and on-going projects at the university.
As part of the workshop, participants also had a chance to visit the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school), as well as the Bay Area design firms Jump Associates, Speck Design, Astro Studios and Smart Design.
If you are interested in learning more about the workshop, or would like to take part in a similar workshop in Luleå during the second half of 2008, please contact Tobias C. Larsson at the Division of Functional Product Development.
