Project Name: UTEC reach

Project by Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidate John Fontaine

Why is this project important to you, your department, & your Fellows?

It is the first time that we as a department co creates a workshop between students and faculty. There are several faculty members that will be facilitating this workshop who have facilitated previous UTEC workshops applying design thinking and also there will be other faculty members who will be taking some training sessions to learn about design thinking, to act as facilitators in UTEC reach and who will hopefully be applying what they learn to their own lessons and projects. Furthermore, fellows from previous UIF cohorts will also participate as facilitators together with 2020 candidates. It is the first time three generations of fellows will be working together to foster innovation in one of our regional institutes.

Description

The project aims at fostering creativity, innovation and building community first regionally and then nationally. This year students from our university and members of the community will work on a challenge that the fellow candidates identified. They found out that students have a need to be heard and connected in order to empower themselves by sharing their experiences, resources, knowledge and skills. Design thinking will be introduced and put to practice in order for the community to solve this pressing problem.

The event will have 3 main instances:

1. Online training for facilitators.

Fellows and candidates together with the faculty champion provide an online training for facilitators (faculty members) about the stages of design thinking and the different tools and strategies to be used during the facilitation of UTEC reach.

Training will be held on October 31

AGENDA:

Basic concepts of innovation. Why is innovation important?
Introduction to design thinking
About UTEC Reach
Cooperative learning and the role of the facilitator
Resources and tools

2. The workshop

It will take place on November 10. The different groups will be presented with the challenge to solve and they will be guided through the design thinking stages. By the end of the session groups are expected to produce a solution for the problem and to be ready to present it to an audience.

AGENDA:

10-11 am - Empathize

11-12 pm - Define

1-2 pm - Ideate

2-3 pm - Prototype

3-4 pm - Test

3. UTEC TALKS

The next day the different groups will be pitching their solutions in the first UTEC talks event which will be held at the ITR SO building in Fray Bentos. Other influential guests and students will also be presenting about their work, projects and ideas.

Stakeholders served

Alvaro Pena - Director of Special Programs Department
Andres Moler - Director of the building ITR SO
All the population of students in UTEC throughout the country.

Key Milestones

December 2020: First UTEC Reach and UTEC talks events will have taken place in ITR SO (Southwest Regional Technological Institute)
March 2021: Second UTEC talks event will be held in ITR Centro Sur (Center-South Regional Technological Institute)
June 2021:Second UTEC Reach and third UTEC talks events will have taken place in ITR Centro Sur (Center-South Regional Technological Institute)
September 2021: Fourth UTEC talks event will have taken place in ITR Norte (North Regional Technological Institute)
December 2021:Third UTEC Reach and fifth UTEC talks events will have taken place in ITR Norte (North Regional Technological Institute)
March 2022: Students from all regions of the country participate in the fourth edition of UTEC Reach and 6th edition of UTEC talks take place in in ITR SO (Southwest Regional Technological Institute)