Kick Start: UWS Student Innovation Workshop 3: Product Design

Kick Start: UWS Student Innovation Workshops

At UWS, we exist to be a university of curiosity and new thinking.  We want to create new solutions for future challenges that our communities will face.  Kick Start is a student innovation programme designed by the University of the West of Scotland, which goes beyond classroom-based learning, focusing on providing students with the knowledge and skillset to recognise that innovation and entrepreneurship are powerful ways to implement change within their chosen sectors.

Our mission is to ignite, elevate and engage the next wave of leaders for the future, through skills development, innovation and entrepreneurship.  Expand your ideas, build up your creative confidence and innovate your ambitions.  Become the next entrepreneur that the world seeks.

We are calling all students who are interested in something different, who are keen to unleash those creative, innovative and unique ideas whilst developing a reusable skillset, beneficial for the future.  This is a unique opportunity to build up the areas in which you may already excel, develop knowledge of the working environment and have the ability to make a real impact for future businesses.

Kick Start will be hosting a series of workshops that are designed for Postgraduate and PhD students, who are looking to improve their knowledge and skillsets based around innovation and entrepreneurship.  Each workshop session will be 120 minutes long and will be hosted on Zoom.  All three online workshops will be delivered by Head of Business Innovation, Johnny Mone, with guest speakers attending the workshops to share their personal innovation journeys.

The third workshop will explore Product Design:

Product Design involves the stages required in bringing a product from concept or idea to life and incorporates a product’s entire journey.  Having creative ideas is one thing but putting these ideas into practice in a market-compatible product is another.  Creating a viable product idea that has tested well with customers and makes commercial sense is a great starting point, then you can roll up your sleeves and move into the development stage.  In this stage you would be identifying the specifications and processes you’ll use to either make a product or set-up and deliver a service.

Benefits of a Product Design Workshop:

• Have an idea/plan for your overall product roadmap
• Develop your ideas into a viable product/service
• Understand your product and its context
• Brainstorm potential new ideas
• Highlight the potential risks and weaknesses of your product
• Build up knowledge and skills within product development

Tristan Elliott and Dan Irving will be joining Kick Start for this workshop.  Tristan (Business Development Director at i4 Product Design) likes to bring a client centred approach to business development at i4pd and has extensive international experience in medical product development services.  Dan (Executive Productive Development Manager at Novosound) has worked his way up from hands-on application engineering through to managing all science and engineering development at Novosound.  He is passionate about creating innovative and fast paced engineering solutions for challenging product applications.

Participants will be emailed the link for the Zoom call ahead of the event.  While these events are free to attend, advanced registration is required. 

If you have any questions about this event or would like to find out more about the Kick Start programme, please email cpd@uws.ac.uk 

To stay up to date with Kick Start and to be the first to find out about future events, follow the Kick Start Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

• Expand and develop your knowledge and skills through a series of interactive online workshops
• Learn from experienced business experts
• Network with other like-minded individuals and local entrepreneurs
• Build up your own creative confidence and innovative ideas