Unit information: Transdisciplinary Group Project 3: Doing something completely new in 2023/24

Unit name	Transdisciplinary Group Project 3: Doing something completely new
Unit code	INOV30003
Credit points	40
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Mr. Dave Jarman
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	INOV10001
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	Centre for Innovation
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

Students who work on these challenges will work in teams to research and scope the potential unmet needs of a wide range of target audiences. Students will work under a series of broad challenge themes, and with the resources of network partners that they drew on in Year 2. Mentors and coaches will work alongside academics for each of the student teams, and will facilitate students in seeking out transdisciplinary ideas and experiences to inform their design solutions. Designing “something completely new” will require students to generate and sift ideas, seek out appropriate testing grounds, and develop robust and flexible methods of working in an iterative, agile and responsive manner.

The aims of this unit are:

• To advance students abilities to generate ideas and solutions that may address unmet needs, both individually and collaboratively, and provide opportunities for the innovation of disruptive technologies;

• To enable an inventive space where students can work collaboratively to make smart design decisions, prototype, and demonstrate proof of concept innovative solutions that address the needs to their highlighted target audience;

• To link key theoretical and empirical knowledge of the history and processes of new idea generation, and to consolidate student’s knowledge of agile development processes, including building participatory relations with intended target audiences, and implementing feedback on the success of their ideas;

• To advance students critical reflection of their own innovative (co-)design and transdisciplinary group practices.

Your learning on this unit

Students successfully completing the unit will be able to:

1. Investigate and think creatively about core theme challenges and problems;
2. Work individually and collaboratively, and draw on different disciplines, to identify and research significant unmet human needs;
3. Assemble and propose a range of potential innovative design solutions;
4. Communicate and evaluate the potential of different design solutions, and design agile development processes to realise those solutions most likely to succeed;
5. Advance their rapid prototyping skills;
6. Design and implement prototypes through an iterative agile process.

How you will learn

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including lectures and practical activities.The project is intended to promote self-directed and collaborative learning, under guidance of an academic supervisor(s) (plus any relevant external third-parties).

How you will be assessed

• Team Project, 5000 words or equivalent, (50%). [ILOs 2-6]

An industry-facing, team-produced resource documenting the design process.

The word count will be shared across the group and may be scaled based on team size.

• Individual Reflective Critique, 3500 words or equivalent, (50%). [ILOs 1, 2, 4]

An individual account and reflection on the process of research and idea generation.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. INOV30003).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.