Meet the tracks
Our projects are clustered in intensive, trend related programmes called ‘Tracks’. Each Track sees multidisciplinary teams of designers, developers and researchers working on challenges that meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Hybrid democracy
Join us in creating a democratic digital society. This track signifies the challenge democratic societies face in governing the intertwined online and physical world. With democracies backsliding across the globe, it is clear there is an urgent need for an upgrade. Since democracies by definition center around people, the primary design challenge is to contribute to technological citizenship. Collectively citizens must demand democratic structures, institutions and processes to rejuvenate and guarantee basic democratic principles such as freedom, equality and the protection of human rights.
Digital twin
The idea of a digital twin, a virtual representation of an object, a person or a process, is not new. But the application of advanced big data analytics and AI might turn it into a truly disruptive technology. What happens when digital twins are linked to the real world, real people, real processes, real time for monitoring and control? Who will be using this technology and for what purposes?
Edtech for social change
The EdTech for Social Change track is a connective hub that opens space for partnerships, applied research and projects with industry stakeholders. Together we use technology to boost individual learning, corporate training, and to make learning accessible to vulnerable social groups.
Design across cultures
In this track we design new ways to create meaningful connections between multiple stakeholders to co-create insights, ideas and solutions for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The key question: how can you design for collaboration across contexts, cultures and nations, sustainably, without having to be physically travel across the globe?
Beyond blended
Education is going through a transformation. This transformation became suddenly very urgent when we had to teach and study from home. Based on this recent and intense experience, we gained the knowledge and know-how, to now research and design the ideal blend between physical and online education.
However, applied and physically hands-on education has been much harder to organize on distance. How can we make sure that the benefits of blended education can also work for this type of education? How can we develop (hard) skills for physical contexts in virtual spaces?
Digital technology offers opportunities, when we look at VR, AR, IoT, Community Platforms, and new functionalities within streaming services. The technical aspects require a safe and secure infrastructure, digital literacy from teachers, researchers, and students.
In the Beyond Blended track, we build our knowledge by designing and creating digital experiments within various departments in Higher Education. We collect and share expertise, frameworks, templates, tools, and methods that can be easily applied to develop and foster the development of digital applications and future-based practical education and vocational training.
Results and learnings will be made publicly available, by using and creating open-source tools and create tutorials and wikis. We’ll support teachers, schools, and faculties, by offering coaching, facilitation, and training. By building a community of teachers, researchers and students we aim to increase peer-to-peer learning and implement the knowledge in the organization.
Join our 20 week traineeship!
Systems for sharing
In this track we will work on technical, digital and social systems. We create proof of concepts, prototypes and do applied research to support ’systems for sharing’ in the light of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We will also train organisations and professionals to adopt a different mindset and be able to stimulate a sharing culture within their work environment or community.
Digital to physical
How does the blend of the digital and physical worlds change our society? In this track we explored topics such as smart spaces and objects, physical cybersecurity, inclusivity and the future of our digital/physical society.
Data driven transformation
How can we ensure we marshal data in such a way as to benefit society? We explored the possibilities, considering subjects such as the energy transition, health and experience.