Innovation Day engaged students

On Friday 18 November Innovation Day for students was organised for the first time at KI. The initiative took place at several higher education institutions across Europe within the framework of the EU project EIT Health with the aim of encouraging students to think innovatively and seek creative solutions which can develop health care.

During the morning lectures were held and preparations took place for the afternoon’s major exercise on applying the innovation model “Design Thinking.”

“We want to inspire the students and show that their ideas are meaningful and that there are ways of attaining them,” says Cecilie Hilmer, project manager in bioentrepreneurship and manager of the workshop in “Design Thinking.”

One of the challenges during the workshop was to develop an innovative solution which can help allergy patients to adapt their life to their allergy. At the end of the day the students had the opportunity to present their ideas in the form of a video which was published on social media.

“I think that everything is possible if you have an idea. You might need a lot of help on the way, but in the end you can achieve your goal,” says Eveline Shevin, student of biomedicine and one of the participants of the day’s workshop.

Paul Drescher, master student at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology was also one of the participants.

“Initially I was sceptical of it all, but what we did today actually works, and I might even use some of these tools in the future.”

After the students presented their ideas, the day ended with well-deserved innovation drinks and Anneliese Lilienthal, who served as project coordinator of the initiative, felt satisfied.

“I hope that the students return home from this day and feel that innovation is something which they can identify with, take with them and apply in their future work.”

Text, film: Susanna Forsell

Photo: Gunnar Ask