A platform for innovative entrepreneurship and European innovation education, experiences from PDP, PIP and FLPD M.T. Reinikainen 1, M. Fallast 2 1 Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Machine Design, Puumiehenkuja 5 A, Espoo, FI-02015 TKK, Finland (mikko.t.reinikainen@tkk.fi) 2 Graz University of Technology, Technology Transfer Office, Schloegelgasse 9/III, A-8010 GRAZ, Austria (mario.fallast@tugraz.at) Keywords: interdisciplinary projects, academic entrepreneurship, innovation education, technology transfer Abstract This paper presents a platform for innovation education, two different international and interdisciplinary courses, one research project and a description of how they are linked together; Product Development Project (PDP) at Helsinki University of Technology, (TKK), product innovation project (PIP) at Graz University of Technology, (TU Graz), and Future Lab of Product Design (FLPD). Experience shows that a platform for innovative entrepreneurship and technology transfer needs the combination of both an active cooperation between the acting persons and the environments that enable that cooperation. TKK and TU Graz have established an education and research cooperation in the course of the mentioned project. We have experienced that there is a potential to intensify technology transfer between industry and university and to inspire stakeholders for cooperation and innovative entrepreneurship. The official cooperation between TKK and TU Graz departments started in the year 2006. So far, six startups in Finland and one international university-industry joint venture have been established. The platform around TKK will be further developed to the Design Factory, a showcase for the coming Innovation University in Finland, a fusion of three universities. The paper presents a possible future scenario of matching different initiatives to a clearly defined Europewide coordinated programme on the topic of product innovation education towards building a European Innovation University? 1. INTRODUCTION The Commission of the European Communities stated the following in September 2006: Our future depends on innovation [1] A comprehensive description of the term innovation was given by Myers and Marquis in 1969: Innovation is not a single action but a total process of interrelated sub processes. It is not just the conception of a new idea, nor the invention of a new device, nor the development of a new market. The process is all these things acting in an integrated fashion. [2] The Commission of the European Union summarises the present economic situation as follows: In a remarkably short period of time, economic globalization has changed the world economic order, bringing new opportunities and new challenges. In this new economic order, Europe cannot compete unless it becomes more inventive, reacts better to consumer needs and preferences and innovates more. [3] In the same statement, the importance of an adequate education as a pre-condition for the actions mentioned was stressed: First and foremost, without education as a core policy, innovation will remain unsupported. It must promote talent and creativity from an early stage. In its Communication of 10 November 2005, the Commission has already identified the key competences necessary for living and working in a modern innovation-oriented
society. These include entrepreneurial skills in the wider sense, as well as literacy, scientific and mathematical competence, languages, learning-to-learn skills and social and cultural competences. [4] What is mentioned in the quotation above is a short summary describing the changed environment economy is currently facing. Increased mobility (of both goods and people) and the development in telecommunications have changed the economic world. The market place became global and competitors do not only come from the same geographic region, country, or even continent. Two main challenges: 1) The ability to innovate has to be increased 2) The tools for innovators have to be taught and provided; both from a physical (infrastructure) and mental (education, mind-setting) point of view. Our experience shows that a close collaboration between enterprises, students and universities plays an important role and is a suitable tool to address the needs of nowadays European economy. 1.1. The main Stakeholder groups A general overview shall characterise the main stakeholder groups and show the existing resources they can contribute to a common project. Table 1 is subject to the authors personal opinion. Points from 1 to 5 are given according to the degree of performance: Table 1. Contributions to a common project [5] The experience of different projects shows that the strengths and weaknesses of the three stakeholder groups are often complementary. The same applies for a more narrow view, when we look at interdisciplinary and intercultural teams of individuals. In the past decades, the relationship between the groups in the triangle of academic world, industry, and the individual changed substantially. Figure 1 shows the model of interactions between university, students, and industry as it was realised in the past. It shows a timeline in which students are educated at university with little or no contact with the industry and get in contact with the industry as soon as they graduate and work for a company. STUDENT UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY Figure 1. A model of University - Student - Industry interactions [6]
Due to different reasons, the relationship changed to the model shown in figure 2. It shall emphasise the increasing interdependencies between the three parties. In contrast to figure 1, there is no dependency on time in this model the triangle of cooperation stays the same, only the roles change: UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY STUDENT Figure 2. The Triangle Universities Students Industry [7] This follows also an ongoing paradigm shift concerning the innovation culture of enterprises. 1.2. The paradigm of Open Innovation It describes the enterprises changed behaviour in dealing with intellectual property, ideas in general and the opportunities of the nowadays widespread distribution of useful knowledge. According to CHESBROUGH [8], the classical model of closed Innovation where product and business ideas are mostly developed inside the firms own R&D-departments, the open innovation paradigm also affected by the changed knowledge landscape in the beginning of the twenty-first century merges external ideas and knowledge with internal R&D. It raises external ideas as well as external paths to markets to the same level as internal ones during the era of Closed Innovation. The two different models can be combined (figure 3). The following figure shows the development funnel and the exchange of ideas across firm boundaries or if we see it more general: Across companies boundaries across organisations boundaries Exchange of ideas exchange of knowledge, experience, IPR, staff etc. Figure 3. The Knowledge Landscape in the Closed and Open Innovation Paradigm [9]
The exchange of knowledge (and ideas, experience, staff, IPR, ) needs a basis, needs organisational frameworks. It needs infrastructure ( where to meet ), it needs suitable mind settings ( I see that the exchange generates win-win situations ), it needs two-way understanding ( What are your problems and challenges? ), it needs speaking the others` language ( What do you mean by saying ), it needs knowing about the others` culture ( Is he/she late because he/she does not value my work? ), it needs a legal framework (IPR, liability ). 2. EXAMPLES FOR INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY INNOVATION EDUCATION in the following, several example projects are described. Each of them has a certain focus in terms of project size, grade of participation of the three main stakeholder groups and other parameters. What they all have in common is that they all act in the triangle of Universities, Enterprises and Students as well as the mission to support the understanding of the complexity of innovation. 2.1. PDP Product Development Project (course) PDP course is aimed at students of engineering, industrial design and marketing who are interested in product development of investment or consumer goods. TKK is the origin of the interdisciplinary PDP course which has attracted more than 100 students every year from several domestic and international universities since 1980. In the present form, the PDP course has been organised since 1997. Students work in teams of roughly 10 ±3 members, carrying out a development task from idea to prototype during one academic year, at TKK from September to April. Studying is based on problem-based learning and the tasks are proposed and sponsored by industrial companies and private investors. As a result, the teams introduce functional prototypes corresponding to the given task. The PDP course gives the students an opportunity to test their skills and personal limits, and to realise that designing and manufacturability is learned only through practice, that making mistakes is a characteristic of product development, and that valuable experience can be gained through working in an interdisciplinary team in cooperation with different departments, universities, companies and especially with other people. Every year, several patents and registrations of design have been achieved, e.g. Superabsorbent project 2003-2004. [10] 2.2. PIP Product Innovation Project (course) The product innovation project was first introduced at the TU Graz in the academic year 2006/07. The aim of the product innovation project is to expand the high level of the students academic education towards a more practical and market-like view. It should bring three main stakeholder groups students, enterprises and universities together and offer the organisational framework for a fruitful collaboration. Interdisciplinary and international teams of students work on a task given by an industrial sponsor. Teaching as well as student recruiting is done in collaboration with TKK. The budget (provided by the sponsor company) and the infrastructure offered by the universities enable the students to fulfil the given task: Developing a product concept as well as a working, physical prototype within one academic year. [11] In the preparation phase, the exchange with the experienced tutoring team at TKK was very important. The model of PDP course was modified and had to be adapted to fit to the existing organisational and infrastructural characteristics at TU Graz. The following table shows the position of the product innovation project in an enterprises product innovation process:
student team industrial sponsor task definition innovation objective preparation phase idea generation I. situation analysis II. idea generation III. idea combination company information ideas and/or suggestions idea acceptance IV. idea evaluation expertise input V. rough concept development expertise input VI.joint concept selection VII. detailed product concept development VIII. product development and prototyping machining support idea realisation industrial sponsor student team handover IX. refinement, detail design X. production milestones XI. market introduction Figure 4. The position of product innovation project in an enterprises product innovation process [11] 2.3. FLPD Future Lab of Product Design Project: To educate the world s best product designers (research project on teaching product development) FLPD, in short, is a research group of ten people, located in Machine Design, at TKK. We develop product development environments to better facilitate pd-activities focusing on the early phases of the process. We deal with both the physical and the mental environment, researching and creating facilities, tools and practices alike. On the mental side, we study how the initial phases of product development can best be supported. One result of research was the development of a one-day-workshop: PD6-Product development project in six hours which shows the steps of product development as well as the according challenges in a compressed form. The workshop was held in several different environments student teams, small companies as well as global enterprises. The research group aims at creating more such tangible tools to be used among both professionals and students. The physical environment should enable and encourage interaction between different students, researchers and professionals. The facilities should also accommodate and support a variety of different phases in the product development process. This means, among other things, easy access to prototyping materials and information. A prototype of the ideal infrastructure for product development has been installed and is being tested at TKK s Institute of Machine Design since 2007. The premises are mainly in use for the course Product Development Project, but shall also act as a melting pot for university staff, students and enterprises. We believe that very few of us can afford to compete with those few percents of the best student or worker raw material most of us are, by definition, average. One should therefore focus on how an individual can reach his or her full potential and how to gain the best result possible with the existing workforce. In order to educate the world s best product designers, we need to understand what product design expertise is and how
to support its development. FLPD works closely together with both pd-experts [12] and the Product Development Project course offered at TKK s Machine Design to reach this goal. 2.4. Murjottelu An interdisciplinary trainee program Murjottelu is a trainee programme organised by Otaniemi International Innovation Centre (OIIC) at TKK. It helps companies to recruit best trainees and enables students to find challenging traineeship from their own fields of study. The internships take place in a company: the important prerequisite is that teams consist of two or more students from different fields of study (business, technology and design). Experience shows that the interdisciplinary composition of working teams leads to superior results in achievements for the companies as well as in learning experience. The typical working period stretches over 2-3 months during the summer. [13] 2.5. DF Design Factory: A showcase on the way to the Finnish Innovation University Design Factory is an international network that is focused on product design research and education. It is a platform for different product design related experiments, it brings together students, teachers, researchers and experts from industry and economic life. Design Factory focuses on paradigm change in studying and working life. An idea about Design Factory is origin from FLPD, the idea has further been developed in cooperation with HSE, TKK and TaiK and economic life. Future Lab of Product Design (FLPD), International Design Business Management (IDBM), Product Development Project (PDP) and Helsinki School of Creative Entrepreneurship (HSCE) are the first interdisciplinary programmes that are moving into Design Factory in 2008. [14], [15] Architecture, working traditions and methods of Design Factory are supporting interdisciplinary problem based project education and research. Theory and practice converge in workshops where there are combined prototyping facilities, show rooms, libraries and lounge for refreshment and innovative communication. All the premises in Design Factory are open and achievable according to the 24/7 principle, facilities are also open for industry and business. Design Factory project is coordinated by TKK. TKK has reserved over 3000 m 2 physical premises for Design Factory. [15] 2.6. IU Innovation University in the Helsinki Area Innovation University is a new university which will be created through a full merger of three existing universities: Helsinki School of Economics (HSE), University of Art and Design Helsinki (TAIK) and Helsinki University of Technology (TKK). Its special national mission will be employing research and education to support the success of Finland in the international economy. At the same time, the university will make a positive contribution to the Finnish society, its technology, economy, culture and international appeal. [16] The goal for the new university is to be one of the leading institutions in the world in terms of research and education in its own specialised disciplines by 2020. The Innovation University starts operating in August 2009. [16] 2.7. Innovative entrepreneurship A definition for Entrepreneurship Education for the purpose of this assessment is the following [17]: Entrepreneurship refers to an individual s ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, innovation and risk taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. This supports everyone in day-to-day life at home and in society, makes employees more aware of the context of their work and better able to seize opportunities, and provides a foundation for entrepreneurs establishing a social or commercial activity. Developing generic attributes and skills that are the foundations of entrepreneurship is complemented by imparting more specific knowledge about business according to the level of education. It needs to be stressed that entrepreneurship education is not to be confused with general business and economic studies as its goal is to promote creativity, innovation and self-employment. [18] 2.8. International joint venture: TKK Company X Company Y FLPD project has been a platform for innovative entrepreneurship preparations between TKK and Company X (Finland) and Company Y (Abroad). A new company applies participants key skills in their business. TKK will provide new and innovative product development facilities (Design Factory) and know-how for joint venture s use, Company X and Company Y will bring in their technology and business know-how. Companies and TKK can can form a very interesting combination of know-how and technology and a place where it can be flexibly be developed. In the beginning of March 2008 the joint venture started activities at the FLPD premises at TKK. The joint venture is a direct result from setting up vital networks between companies in combination with the existing organisational framework and infrastructure to realise tangible results in an early phase of collaboration.
2.9. Examples for academic entrepreneurship at TKK Around the interdisciplinary study programme s activities at TKK six companies have been established since 2006: IHQ Medical Oy, Next Icon Oy, Safera Oy, Power Kiss (incorporated pending), Laika-Design Oy and Seos design Oy. The common element for these companies is, that the founders have been working at the university and they have met during their studies. They have typically met at the end of their studies just before they were starting to do their master s theses. Learning the basics of interdisciplinary working methods and possibilities in it have encouraged the students to test their own skills in commercial way. Close contacts to the universities have been proved to be the key element in every company. Following, three cases are explained: Case 1: Next Icon Oy interdisciplinary product development service provider Next Icon Company is providing flexible product development services. Next Icon s expertise is industrial design and engineering, Next Icon is actively developing and using user centred design methods with strategic thinking. Next Icon has close contacts with universities in Finland and abroad. The activities of Next Icon Oy started in 2006 and grew rapidly: The number of employees of Next Icon reached 16 by beginning of 2008. Vital contact to university is kept upright, e.g. by participating TKKs Murjottelu programme. Case 2: Safera Oy for your safety Safera Oy is a spin-off company from Next Icon started in 2007. Safera Oy focuses on household fire prevention products and services. The first commercial products have been sold. The development of the commercialization phase has been intensified by participating the Venture Cup business idea competition [19] and by hiring a person making his master s thesis about the commercialization of a new fire safety product. The company has outsourced new products proof of concept development phase to TKK s PDP course (project Lumifire). Case 3: Power Kiss (incorporated pending) wireless power transfer solutions Power Kiss (incorporated pending) is based on a product idea about a wirelessly charging- furniture for mobile devices. The idea came up in a course at HSE where students were required to develop a business plan. The business idea had already been existing, but the technical realisation was still missing in the beginning. Therefore, Power Kiss decided to sponsor a project at the PDP course. Power Kiss company has participated in the Venture Cup business idea competition and been nominated in the first phase. STATUS: The company has not been founded because of terms of public financing. 3. RESULTS The described cases show that apart from the increased learning effects of the presented programmes, also a remarkable set of direct tangible results are generated through the presented activities. Thus, it can be assumed that it is a logical step to intensify the activities and extend them. One possible scenario of a set of extended activities based on the following assumptions is presented in the following: 1) Diverse ingredients (business ideas, smart people, laboratory facilities, market opportunities, venture capital ) are necessary for successful innovations. Student projects are a suitable platform to form this understanding. 2) Students benefit from projects carried out with enterprises as partners. The knowledge about the challenges of product innovation has increased. The ability of successfully founding an enterprise has increased. 3) Vital networks (between enterprises, students and universities) support the foundation of start-ups and spin-offs as well as they support the innovation power of existing enterprises. 4) Infrastructures which is especially designed for bringing actors together (communication areas) and enable product development process (including workshop facilities, material libraries, ) are an effective way of supporting the innovation power of enterprises, fostering education and giving valuable input for research activities. 5) Several forms of interdisciplinary, international student projects on product innovation (or covering certain sections of the innovation process) exist at European Universities. They are mostly not harmonised with each other. 6) Numerous enterprises see a big potential in participating as partners in student projects.
7) Knowing potential partners and knowing how to collaborate with them supports successful innovations. 8) Activities at TKK show that the chosen approach leads to remarkable tangible results and are worth to be extended to other geographical regions. 4. CONCLUSIONS According to the these results and the experiences we gained in the last years, we see a large potential in the following conclusions which shall be described as outlook to a possible scenario of a common platform for innovation education, which might become reality in a few years: 4.1. A platform based on experiences from Finnish Austrian cooperation On the way to a virtual European Innovation University campus? The platform is based on the idea of coordinating and partly synchronising the existing activities of different universities to an increasing extent. As it is already the case between TKK and TU Graz, the following actions could be the basis for a common understanding of innovation education in Europe: Synchronisation of activities, which already exist at different universities: First steps could be: 1) Synchronisation of the project beginnings and project ends experience shows that synchronisation is possible even when holiday times are not the same and vary from 1 month. 2) A common presentation of project tasks (beginning of academic year) as well as of the project results (end of the academic year) at different universities (e.g. via video conference). 3) Common set of deliverables (Documentation, Business Plans ) 4) Increased integration of international remote team members in the courses. An intermediate step is the integration of incoming exchange students 5) Synchronisation of teaching contents. A first step is realised by the introductory one-day seminar ( PD6-workshop ) 6) Brokerage sessions for the participating partner enterprises 7) Job-corner: HR-managers know about the existing experience of students who participated in the programme 8) Active network of alumnae who participated in the programme 9) A common set of legal arrangements (IPR-concerns, budgeting) In a second phase, even the physical homes of the project works could be the same in different countries following the successful model of Design Factory at TKK. Global suppliers (e.g. of electronic parts) could be acquired as partners for these innovation labs. Material libraries in all regional Design Factories are the same, which would foster remote team collaboration. References [1] COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Putting knowledge into practice: A broad-based innovation strategy for the EU, Brussels 13.9.2006, page 2 [2] MYERS, S.; MARQUIS, D.G.; Successful industrial innovation: a study of factors underlying innovation in selected firms, National Science Foundation, NSF 69-17, Washington DC 1969 quoted in TROTT, P.: Innovation Management and New Product Development, 3 rd edition, Prentice Hall, Harlow 2005, page 15 [3] COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Putting knowledge into practice: A broad-based innovation strategy for the EU, Brussels 13.9.2006, page 2
[4] COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Putting knowledge into practice: A broad-based innovation strategy for the EU, Brussels 13.9.2006, page 2 [5] cp. M. Fallast: Success Factors in the Implementation of an Interdisciplinary Product Innovation Project, Diploma Thesis, Graz 2007, page 27 [6] M. Fallast: Success Factors in the Implementation of an Interdisciplinary Product Innovation Project, Diploma Thesis, Graz 2007, page 7 [7] M. Fallast: Success Factors in the Implementation of an Interdisciplinary Product Innovation Project, Diploma Thesis, Graz 2007, page 8 [8] H. Chesbrough: Open Innovation A New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, Boston, Massachusetts 2006, page 177 [9] H. Chesbrough: Open Innovation A New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, Boston, Massachusetts 2006, page 31 [10] Method and shield structure against flying bodies and shock waves, EP1766319, PDP course: SuperAbsorbent project, 2003-2004. [11] M. Fallast; H. Oberschmid; R. Winkler: The implementation of an interdisciplinary product innovation project at Graz University of Technology, INTED 2007 proceedings, IATED, Valencia 2007 [12] Tua A. Björklund, Janne M. Korhonen & Mikko T. Reinikainen, 2007 Refelektori Expert intuition How to improve students problem solving efficiency [13] Itkonen M. & Kojo I., Sefi 2008, Murjottelu trainee programme. [14] Reinikainen M., Lindfors O. & Ekman K., Sefi&Igip 2007, abstract: Future Lab of Product Design [15] http://www.innovaatioyliopisto.info/fi/ [16] http://www.innovaatioyliopisto.info/en/ [17] Commission Communication Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and learning. COM(2006) 33 final. [18] Brussels, November 27, 2007 Assessment of compliance with the entrepreneurship education objective in the context of the 2006 Spring Council conclusions [19] http://web.venturecup.fi/index.php?id=173, A three-stage business plan competition. First stage competition is for business ideas, the second stage is for draft business plans and the third is for completed plans.