From 15 – 19 July, a course on prototyping in health, sport and urban innovation sectors, called Summer Crash Course, took place in Sabadell (Mediaestruch) and Eindhoven (Innovation Space of the TUE) at the same time. The Technology University of Eindhoven (TUE) made this synchronicity possible via a telematic connection.
During the course, new start-ups were incubated, testing the invented prototypes in the city of Sabadell. With the help of design-thinking, the following ideas and challenges have been discussed:
- Easy-to-use mini defibrillator for home
- Innovative application of public lighting
- Adaptation of the city infrastructure towards autonomous vehicles and connected mobility
- Robotics applied to public management
- Old textile chimneys reused as technology hubs and energy generators
- Application of Blockchain to urban management / smart city / health + sports sectors
- New technologies for the 4.0 Industry
- Internet of things applied to urban management / smart city / health + sports sectors
- Technologies applied to health / sport textiles (e.g., connected sport’s T-shirt)
- Digital sports facilities
- Technologies and methodologies for safe and green school mobility
- 3D printing applied to urban management / smart city / health + sport sectors
- 3D digital modeling of Sabadell
- E-bike responding to the needs of Sabadell
- Technologies for remote care of the elderly at home
- Use case related to 5G connectivity implementation in Sabadell (e.g. massive anonymous data collection of mobile phones in the city for research projects, mixed virtual and physical cultural events, etc.)
The course focused on the first phase of prototyping in health, sport and urban innovation sectors, for 4 out of 16 ideas/challenges proposed by the City Council of Sabadell to the TUE: green mobility at schools, care of the elderly, urban digital modelling in 3D and public lighting. 15 Eindhoven and Sabadell students participated in the course, with the presence of students from the Smart and Sustainable Cities programme from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), from the Technology University of Eindhoven and from the University of Utrecht.
The students of Sabadell and Eindhoven proposed the following solutions for two of the ideas:
- Green mobility at schools: GPS-monitoring of students (integrated into a vest) on their way to or from school in order to increase the safety perception of their families.
- Elderly care: Video call and sensoring system for the periodic monitoring of chronic patients, thus decongesting the primary care centres of Sabadell (CAPs).
This course was aimed at students who have a special motivation to work in real projects and in international collaboration, and has helped them to better understand the dynamics of product development, from idea to proof of concept, prototyping and production. The format of the campus has been “informal”, in an inspiring framework like the “Estruch” arts centre. Once the course has finished, for those ideas/challenges that have been analysed as viable, the prototyping process will continue with the students. The goal is, that, in the medium term, they will end up creating commercial products.
