Students
This Fall 2021 we launch again our award winning course. This year with some major re-factoring: more about the societal impact, and lessons learned from remote learning. Of course, we don’t know yet whether we are 100% online or not. The new semester is here, and you have started to create plans for what to study this fall. We hope you seriously consider CS-E5280 Societal Design Project (9 cr).
Societal Design Project (SDP) is a revision of the Digital Service Design (DSD) that ran for 7 years and been rewarded practically every year as one of the best courses at Aalto’s CS department. In 2019 it was the best one.
Client Cases 2020
For Whom
Whether your interests lay in code, organizational design, strategic consulting, service or UX design, data, or somewhere else, you will encounter situations where the creation of new concepts (innovation) is needed.
The course is compulsory for all master’s students in Information Networks (because you will all end up in multi-disciplinary teams). However, and importantly, we have a special quota for other master’s students as well! In the past years the ARTS and BIZ and other SCI students have been super important for the course, and have also enjoyed the course a lot.
You should have basic knowledge of design tools and thinking (e.g., “SCI-C1002 – Käyttäjälähtöinen tuotekehitysprojekti” or similar). Also, it helps if you appreciate team work and interaction, and you believe that best results come from a diversity of backgrounds.
NOTE! The course is intensive and requires everyone to commit to a specific schedule (it is 9 credits, after all). That is the secret of the course’s long success: students actually commit to the team work and the client case. In other words, please don’t think about doing the course only during the weekends.
But don’t be scared! We truly try to make this course one of the best in the whole Aalto (and we have a pretty good track record already 😛 ). That is why we put so much effort into teaching and coaching. For example, the whole teaching / coaching / client staff is as many people as the students themselves. Read further to see what we mean…
Personal Coach for Everyone
For each and every student there is a personal professional coach that helps the student to find their own role, skills, and style in multi-disciplinary team working on a strategic concept. This year the professional mentors come from Accenture, Nitor, Solita and Vincit. You will meet your coach three times at least: before, during, and after the team work.
Group Coach for Every Team
Each team has a coach to help the team deliver the required work for the client. Also, each client organisation is committed to have a contact person weekly available and as a remote member of the team. The team coaches consist of students and graduates who have done the course previously and have a really good understanding of what you are trying to achieve as a team.
Societal Impact through Strategic Design
The societal focus of the course is there to show that everything we create in the business context, happens also at a societal context. And now, as we are facing these huge societal changes, such as Covid-19, this kind of broad thinking that permeates the limits of business and society is more important than ever.
In practice, each client case has a societal dimension and this is also part of the design tools and process used in the course. In other words, you will learn how to bring social impact into the actual strategic thinking of your concept.
How do I get into the course?
The course in Oodi for you to register. Here are the facts about the course schedule:
Course starts in period I in September 2021 and ends in December (extends across 2 periods). All lectures are mandatory. At the moment, the course is going to be online, unless the Covid-19 situation changes over the summer. Each team and coach and client can arrange their own meetings in physical proximity as long as the rules for distancing are applied. However, the course is going to be planned and tailored differently depending on the pandemic situation.
