Showing posts with label Tokyo Tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tokyo Tech. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Let's Talk about .. Design Workshop


Today (October 31st, 2013), halloween day, there was the International Workshop Participatory Methods for Co-design Approach at Tokyo Institute of Technology. This workshop was organized by Assoc.Prof. Celine Mougenot (Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering) and Assoc.Prof. Naoya Abe (Department of International Development Engineering).

Due to my schedule, I can attend only the morning session. It was hands-on session called "Design Principles for Non-Designers" by Ms. Victoria Gerrard. She is an executive director of O(Opportunity)-Lab, SUTD-MIT International Design Center, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore.

Ms. Victoria in hands-on session

She started with showing many products of banana leaf. I can understand many things related to design in that session. 

Design is understanding
First, "design is understanding". We should not be aggressive to the environment, but we should understand it. We can design although we do not know how it will be.

Who should design?
The answer is everyone. We can find design every where. Design can also be professional and universal. 

Learning from failure
Through the activity she asked us to design, we can learn that failure can be the lesson to have a good design. Many times we started with too complex idea, but it might not be OK to implement. Once we know failure, we can change, improve, or modify it.

Rich picture
It is another activity we tried. We drew our design which expressed something. I did my work as the disaster management rich picture as it is what I am interested in.

Discussion on our Rich Picture design

Although I cannot attend the full program, thank Ms. Victoria Gerrard, Assoc.Prof. Mougenor, Assoc.Prof. Abe, and all organizers for setting this workshop.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Let's Talk about .. Design (Thinking) of Business and Tokyo Tech IS Lab

This autumn my advisor, Prof. Junichi Iijima, has chosen a book called "The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage" by Prof. Roger L. Martin for our lab book reading seminar. For me, it is one of the interesting books because the book described and show many cases related to the story. Especially, the Knowledge Funnel of Prof. Martin explains how we can take a step to discover "innovation".

Last week, my lab mate, Chaeyoung Lim, presented about Design Thinking in this seminar. There is the definition of Design Thinking by Tim Brown (2008), CEO and president of IDEO, as "A discipline that uses the designer's sensibility and method to match people's needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity" mentioned in the book. I have known some works of Tim Brown since 2010 when I took a Design Thinking course of Assoc.Prof. Hiroyuki Umemuro. I also bought a Thai edition of the book "Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation" by Tim Brown at that time.

Tim Brown's concept of Design Thinking have been mentioned and referenced by many researches. From suggestion of Prof. Junichi Iijima and Asst.Prof. Jaehyun Park, I searched more about IDEO. I found many interesting stories created or supported by IDEO people. According to IDEO, innovation is the result of "Feasibility (Technical)", "Viability (Business)", and "Desirability (Human)". Prof. Iijima also said that currently our IS Lab at Tokyo Tech consists of experts in these three areas (i.e., Prof. Iijima in technological area, Assoc.Prof. Dai Senoo in business area, and Asst.Prof. Jaehyun Park in design area). 

I should learn more from them in order to be a person who can establish new innovation.

Ref.
[1] Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86 (6). 
[2] Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, NY: Harper Business.
[3] IDEO. About IDEO. Retrieved October 2013 from http://www.ideo.com/about/
[4] Martin, R. L. (2009). The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Let's Talk about .. The 10th Tokodai Science Cafe

This year, there is the 10th Tokodai Science Cafe at Tokyo Institute of Technology. Tokodai is an abbreviation of Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japanese. This time I am one of the organizer team. I'd like to introduce you to join if you're interested in.


Designed by Natsumi Takahashi


The 10th Tokodai Science Cafe
Theme: さわる 感じる 伝える こころ
Date: Saturday February 16th, 2013
Time: 13:00-15:30 (Door open: 12:45)
Venue: 手島精一記念会議室, Tokyo Tech Front 3rd Floor, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama Campus
Entrance fee: 500 Yen (Including drink and snacks)
Language: Japanese (mainly)
Note: Web register is required