Learning from the Innovation Marketplace

It is always valuable to learn from the students that take part in our learning activities so we can improve our practice in the long run. This quick article will outline some of the comments we received from the recent Innovation Marketplace.

What worked well?

This year we had a mid-term trip to Labosport’s premises in Le Mans, France. A very valuable trip to talk about the project and see the facilities the company currently has access to. This element was received well and is a great model for this kind of activity.

The trip to see the labs in France was really helpful to get a feel for the task and what the company wanted. So this sort of thing should be continued

The trip to Le Mans was really nice and helped a lot with the challenge and also with getting to know the other students and lecturers. So that should definitely be continued (additional trip on top of the one to the final event).

Also, more generally, in an age of video conferencing and remote working. Meeting in person is still valued:

Travel and meetings in person

The trips are great learning experiences.

Get togethers, trip to company, social events

It would be remiss not to mention what an excellent job was done in organising the event!

Very good communication and helpful suppirt sessions. Well organised event at the end

Communication and Meeting Organisation between the students, the staff and the companies

What do we need to work on?

Something that was recognised by students, and certainly felt by staff members too, was the high ratio of travel time to mobility. With a packed schedule of mobility activities, finding enough time for them can be a challenge.

Longer Meetings, not just 1,5 effective days. Better: 2 whole days for relaxed travel in the last

As much fun and insightful as the whole experience was, the actual in-person events feel very fast. Lots of transit time compared to onsite time socializing and networking

Some groups felt the project wasn’t well defined in the beginning. Having a clear direction and communicating this to students can be a challenge. This became clearer over the course of the project, particularly after the trip to Le Mans.

In the first meetings/weeks the task was not defined particularly and it was hard to getting started with the project

The task of this years challenge was rather vague in the beginning, so it took quite a while to figure out what we had to do, which then took away from the time we could actively work on the actual project.

Of course, we should also think about proper motivations for the students! Academic credit plays an important part here, which can be difficult for UK universities which operate under a different model.

I know this doesn't really directly answer the question, but if the prize for winning was known in advance, I think that would have helped the motivation of our group as a whole leading up to the event. Its easy for it to fall down the priority list when it isn't "for anything" (for those groups that received no academic credit for it). Incentive would light the fire under all of the groups a little better as a whole in my opinion!