The Power of Entrepreneurship with Design Thinking Course

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]In the summer of 2014, the Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute introduced Design Thinking to Ryerson University through an intensive week long cross-faculty course at the Digital Media Zone. The Design Thinking methodology is human centric, focusing on thoroughly understanding the end user, creating new experiences and designing innovative business strategies and models. Student participants in the course had the incredible experiential learning opportunity to apply the Design Thinking methodology to a real-life problem in the financial industry, under the mentorship of professionals and Design Thinking experts from the Strascheg Centre for Entrepreneurship in Germany.

Emerging Projects (testimonials)

The Design Thinking experience created by the REI was fantastic. The process is simple but revolutionary. It is a novel yet effective way to tackle complex problems. Having gone through the ENT major, I feel that the Design Thinking pedagogy is vital for current students. The hands-on approach, analytical tools and mentorship provided over the one week pilot provided a full semester’s worth of learning. As a returning student, I will be looking to further opportunities to develop my ability to use the Design Thinking process. Currently I am working on project for the Ontario Center of Excellence. This project aims to increase electric vehicle adoption rates and is a perfect candidate to apply the process of Design Thinking. I look forward to seeing REI and Ryerson develop more similar opportunities.

-Ilya Zatolokin

In completing the design thinking course It occurred to me how valuable and needed a fresh approach to solving the problems in my industry is. The cross-discipline, problem focused approach of Design Thinking would be a perfect fit for seeking innovation in a field as people focused as media and communication. Designing a new way to deliver the news is extremely prudent, and I can’t think of a better way to approach it from the human focused strategy of design thinking. Utilizing the Design Thinking Methodology the team would work to solve the problems in the media industry currently. The group would look to solve issues such as drops in subscriptions and advertising revenue that is currently consolidating and slashing the media industry as a whole. Considering the talent and passion of Ryerson students innovations that could rewrite and reestablish the media industries could very well emerge from this group. Ryerson could contribute a chapter to history by approaching the industry in a unique way.

-Dylan Freeman-Grist

I am computer science major going into my 4th year; I have taken the Design Thinking Methodology course that was run as a one-week boot-camp on Aug 11th. The course worked so well for a bunch of reasons; I believe the main one being a multi-disciplinary team creation. Listening to the thought process of people from other disciplines really opens ones eyes to how else a problem could be solved. This team also ends up building trust and the greater Ryerson community. Design Thinking practice should be implemented in the Computer Science without a doubt; it will allow the faculty to teach students to create ideas and not just code.

-Illya Gordiyenko

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