New Module Now Available: Innovation Sprint – From Problem to Prototype and Pitch in 5 Days

The UIW chair is launching a new practice-oriented teaching format: the Innovation Sprint – From Problem to Prototype and Pitch. This new module offers students an intensive, hands-on learning experience that directly connects academic learning with real-world challenges from practice.

The Innovation Sprint is an on-campus block seminar in which students from different disciplines work together in interdisciplinary teams on concrete challenges provided by external practice partners. Over several consecutive days, participants go through the full innovation process – from understanding real problems and user needs to developing and testing initial solution ideas and presenting their concepts in a final pitch. The format builds on methods from entrepreneurship and design thinking and encourages students to work creatively, analytically, and collaboratively.

A central aim of the module is to foster future-oriented competencies such as problem-solving under uncertainty, interdisciplinary teamwork, user-centered thinking, and the consideration of economic, social, and environmental impacts. By engaging with real challenges and practice partners, students gain insights into how innovation processes unfold in real contexts and how ideas can be developed into viable and responsible solutions.

Organizational information:

The module is offered as an interdisciplinary elective and is open to students from different study programs. It is taught in English and takes place as an on-campus block seminar with a limited number of places (up to 50 students). Students work in interdisciplinary teams, and the assessment format is a group-based pitch of the developed business idea.

All details on the schedule, application process, and crediting options are available in the Moodle course room: Moodle CourseExternal linkExternal link  (Enrollment key: boOstInnovation.)

Module description in German and English