Prototyping as an Innovation and Learning Tool
Principal Supervisors

Professor Andy Wong
(Faculty of Business Administration)

Duration

3 years

Approved Budget

HK $689,400

 
  • Abstract
  • Brief write-up
  • Video Report

Abstract

  • A university-wide Minor Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EPIN) will be introduced in 2017-18. New courses offered by EPIN encourage students to generate innovative ideas and solutions and put them in practice.

  • Prototyping is an integral part of the EPIN education. Students in project groups will build an unfinished and physical test version of a product, service or process to illustrate and actualize an idea. 3D printing, for example, is a common and popular way to rapidly build prototypes in universities and new business startups.

  • Subsidies will be provided for student’s prototyping in 7 EPIN course sessions, benefitting about 350 students in 2.5 years.

  • Administrative staff will help manage EPIN courses and the prototyping subsidy

  • Finished prototypes and the process from ideation to making will be video-documented and made available for public viewing on KEEP (CUHK e-Learning platform), EPIN website and social media, enabling students to learn online.

Brief write-up

Project objectives

Prototyping is an integral part of the Entrepreneurship and Innovational (EPIN) education to encourage students to turn an innovative concept into reality and help them build realistic prototypes within a reasonable budget. The objectives of the project are to provide a subsidy to student’s prototyping in different EPIN course sessions, promote an innovative spirt and motivate students to learn multi-disciplinary skills beyond their respective majors.

Activities, process and outcomes

A series of brand new EPIN courses have been offered by EPIN in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. They covered different topics related to entrepreneurship and innovation and have successfully attracted more than 300 enrolment rates. To help students gain more exposure and hands-on experience of entrepreneurship and innovation, EPIN nominated more than 20 students to join Tsinghua University iCenter Bauhinia Valley Programme in 2018 summer and Fudan iCenter Bauhinia Valley Programme in 2018 winter. Supplementary to EPIN standard curriculum, EPIN launched a Maker Workshop Series to equip students with essential skills, such as 3D design & printing and VR tour production, for their future prototype production. EPIN will continue to enrich student’ learning experience.

Deliverables and evaluation

The Guest Lecturer Series of EPIN1010 Anatomy of an Entrepreneur was one of the major deliverables of this project. A total of 17 seasoned entrepreneurs were invited to share their real stories and experiences regarding creativity, innovation, problem-solving and entrepreneurship in different situations and a total of 21 guest lectures were successfully launched. Also, with the necessary knowledge acquired and support from this project, students of EPIN1020 Design Thinking and Practice were able to build their own prototypes in the final projects to visualise their innovative ideas.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

An official Facebook page of EPIN was open in April 2017 with over 500 followers. Programme information, updated news and activities, and highlights of EPIN courses were available on the page. A series of EPIN Alumni Entrepreneur Interview and Challenge Cup 2018 Awardees Interview were published on the page for public viewing. The Guest Lecturer Series of EPIN1010 were video-documented and highlights of each guest lecture were also edited and uploaded on the page. A KEEP (Knowledge and Education Exchange Platform) course under EPIN1010 is currently under development to enable CUHK students to learn online by watching the video of the Guest Lecture Series.

Video Report

Please click the following link for viewing the report.
https://panopto.cuhk.edu.hk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=103738D7-D732-48AE-99AB-AC7F010CA145