Design Thinking Workshop: Oxford as a Future City

In April Innovation Forum Oxford held the first of four ACE Saturdays Workshops—with a packed audience of innovators and thinkers. The ACE (Awareness, Connectivity, Exchange) Saturdays program is supported by Knowledge Exchange and Impact (KEI) funding from the University of Oxford and is designed to bring together individuals in the Oxford ecosystem to share knowledge and experiences to broaden horizons and foster innovative collaboration.

The workshop’s theme was imagining the future of Oxford as a connected city with a particular focus on transportation and autonomous vehicles. Participants were trained in the Design Thinking methodology by expert coaches Alejandro Lecuna and Morganne Graves in a day packed with user research, ideation, prototyping, testing and an awful lot of post-it notes.

The day began with an introduction to the challenge by George Economides (Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Team Leader, Oxford City Council) who showcased the past and future transportation initiatives for the city of Oxford. Participants also learnt about many of the projects from the Smart Oxford initiative, which is equipping Oxford to be a city at the forefront on learning and innovation for the 22^ndCentury.

George Economides showcases the City Council’s vision of a future Oxford

Entrepreneurs, clinicians, students and professionals formed teams and started the design thinking process by interrogating the challenge “Design the autonomous vehicle experience for people living and working in Oxford…in a world where societal, environmental and technological changes are becoming increasingly disruptive.” The groups used this process to extract themes and ambiguities that informed questions to be asked of potential users: what would people on the street today want from Oxford as a city in the future…and how varied would their perspectives be?

Deconstructing the challenge and extracting themes to inform user interview questions

After interview training and role-playing with one another, the teams hit the streets to interview potential users of their design solution and to start understanding their needs first-hand. Participants interviewed an impressive scope of potential users and sought the opinions of families, tourists, commuters, residents, students and the disabled.

Teams search-out potential users’ input directly

Many interviews revealed unique and insightful information that underscored the incredible value of a design thinking methodology. The importance of getting user input as early as possible in the process also became clear if teams were to avoid the risk of creating an unneeded design solution in search of a user with a problem.

“I still want to learn how to drive. For me it’s like knowing you’ll be given a life jacket…but you still want to know how to swim.”

–Potential autonomous car user interviewed by workshop participants

After a lunch filled with lively conversation and stories of interview successes each design team synthesised their findings to create an abstract user with well-known problems and needs that could begin to be addressed. Participants worked together as teams to debate and prioritise needs, while sowing the seeds of design solutions specific to users’ time, budget, location, fears, and dreams.

An abstract user is created from interview data

By mid-afternoon the room was alive with creativity as the teams developed and iterated design concepts. In a few intense hours, with coffee breaks ignored and inspirational pipe cleaner construction skills on display, each team created a prototype solution ready for feedback and input from industry experts Andrew Bradley (Automotive & Motorsport Engineering, Oxford Brookes University) and Garry Staunton (UKAEA/RACE Autonomous Vehicles). After expert consultation each them took stock of their design—deciding what worked, what needed improving, and how to integrate new insights.

Ideas are prototyped and iterated against the clock

At the end of a long afternoon of creating each team pitched their final design concept to the other participants and a panel of expert judges. Working from the same design challenge teams conceived of a wonderfully diverse range of concepts addressing challenges to a more autonomous future in both practical and fun ways—and in all cases deeply rooted in the human experience of users. Design solutions included self-driving pods with customisable seating configurations and interiors; robotic chairs to interface between the home and a vehicle; family-focussed holographic personal mapping; an autonomous educational theme park; and autonomous day-care vehicles to delight parents as key societal change-makers.

Teams pitch their designs to each other and a panel of expert judges

The design-filled day ended with drinks and dinner where teams could relax and network. We were so excited to watch incredible ideas be born and to see the benefits of design thinking training in such a short period of time. Finally, thank you to all Innovation Forum Oxford’s local partners including University of Oxford, Oxford Careers Centre, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Triteq, James Cowper Kreston, Pennington Manches and Thinking of Oscar.

Paediatric Innovation in Oxford: EIT Health Day, “Thinking of Oscar” at the Leaders Conference and launching the Oxford Hackathon

The Oxford branch of the Innovation Forum recently supported the EIT Health Innovation Day organised by the Entrepreneurship Centre, Said Business School, Oxford. The event took place at the Oxford Foundry and aimed at defining and solving challenges in mental health following the “design thinking” process. The day brought together scientists, clinicians, MBA students, and anyone with a passion for innovation in health to focus on making a difference in the lives of people struggling with mental health problems, from paediatrics to geriatrics.

Enthusiastic attendees were inspired and challenged to hack smart and creative solutions to common mental health challenges in a matter of hours with the help of experts and industry leaders. Most poignantly, Dr. Karen Steinhardt, Head of Paediatric Psychology at OUHT, set the scene by introducing the scale of the issue of mental health before focusing on her field of expertise, paediatric mental health.

[Photo: Matt Thornton, Entrepreneurship Centre]

In fact, mental health is not the only paediatric field that is in desperate need of innovation. The US-based Institute for Paediatric Innovation estimates that innovation in children’s medicine currently lags behind adult care by five to ten years. Development of paediatric medical devices that can accommodate smaller bones and softer tissues, which are also continually growing, is very challenging. Often innovations in paediatric medicine are simply not commercially viable due to a very small population of patients in an otherwise healthy cohort of children.

Our IFO Paediatric Innovation campaign is focussed on bringing new energy and ideas to the many unsolved challenges across paediatric care—and echoing the words of innovator and paediatric cardiologist Dr. Anthony Chang: “The best and fastest way to innovate, is to collaborate.” As part of the campaign Innovation Forum Oxford will be hosting a series of events in the coming months, which will inspire and equip participants to tackle some of the biggest challenges in paediatric medicine with a fresh and innovative perspective.

Inspiring paediatric innovation will also be showcased at the 2017 Innovation Forum Leaders Conference (IFLC2017) in Oxford, where we are privileged to be partnering with the founders of local charity “Thinking of Oscar”. In founding the charity in memory of their son Oscar, Hannah and David Cole are helping families and hospitals that care for ill children by supporting research and innovation that has tangible benefits. One of their most successful campaigns was for the AccuVein finder, which helps locate veins to draw blood in children’s hands and feet more easily and reduce distress. After a successful trial, the device is now in use at both Great Ormond Street and the John Radcliffe hospitals where it is funded by the charity.

The “Thinking of Oscar” team will be showcasing other initiatives and innovations that they are supporting at the IF Leaders Conference Exhibition on December 4^th and 5^th. With the support of the product design experts Triteq and Innovation Forum Oxford, “Thinking of Oscar” will highlight the importance of paediatric innovation—updating conference delegates on the current state-of-the-art, and facilitating innovation ideation sessions to spark ideas for new solutions to unsolved paediatric health challenges. Visitors to the exhibits will also have the chance to further develop solution concepts with the support of specialists from Triteq, who will coach and offer development insight to innovators with a complimentary day of consultancy at their design studio headquarters.

Finally, in Spring 2018 we will be launching our Oxford Paediatric Innovation Hackathon in partnership with “Thinking of Oscar” and Triteq. The Hackathon will build on the innovative foundations shared at the Leaders Conference, and will focus on solving challenging paediatric health problems identified at the IFLC2017 “Thinking of Oscar” and Triteq booths. The Paediatric Innovation Hackathon in the spring will be the culmination of a program of workshops in Oxford that focus on design and innovation to help hone skills and inspire fun, creative and ground-breaking solutions. Sign-up below to join us and spend the day working on solving real paediatric health challenges with world experts and passionate like-minded people in Oxford.

Sign-up here for details of how to join our Paediatric Innovation Hackathon.

Spherox Pharmaceuticals Wins Oxford Finals of IMAGINE IF! Accelerator Competition

The sell-out evening at the Oxford careers service on October 12^th was an inspiring showcase of the exciting innovation occurring in the Oxford ecosystem, and showed-off some equally impressive entrepreneurs and technology. Martin Ducker, from Spherox Pharmaceuticals, pitched his cell assay to block infiltration of the highly aggressive glioblastoma brain tumour and triumphed in first place with unanimous praise from the panel of expert judges.

Spherox Pharmaceuticals wins Oxford IMAGINE IF! Finals — Oxford Innovation Forum branch President Mira Kassouf congratulates 1st place winner Martin Ducker from Spherox Pharmaceuticals

The Oxford finals brought together the top 10 applications from a very competitive field of startups, each addressing a pressing issue in preserving human wellbeing: from healthcare to environmental conservation. Each startup’s pitch was the culmination of development and guidance from the IMAGINE IF! Accelerator mentors, each offering their expertise as veteran entrepreneurs and industry leaders in biotech and medtech.

As local winner, Martin from Spherox Pharmaceuticals will now pitch at the IMAGINE IF! Grand Finale, held at the Innovation Forum Leaders Conference in Oxford this December. This Grand Finale winner will receive a non-dilutive cash prize of at least $10,000, lab space for 6 months, access to a crowdfunding campaign, and further mentoring from industry leaders.

The innovative technology developed by other Oxford teams on display included air pollution masks, low-cost drug synthesis, smart building temperature control, AI-driven hospital ventilator management, bench-top NMR testing, ultra-efficient heat exchanger nanoparticle coatings, and smartphone-enabled athletic enhancement.

Second and third place in the pitch competition were awarded to HyperC and BioMe Oxford respectively. HyperC impressed the judges with their innovative MRI metabolism compounds that allow detection of cancer at an earlier stage with much greater accuracy than current clinical offerings. The team from BioMe Oxford also inspired the audience with their BioCapture^® ingestible device, which is designed for low-cost sampling of the gut microbiome and offering numerous diagnostic and research functions.

Runners-up of Oxford IMAGINE IF! Finals — The teams from runner-up HyperC (left) and BioMe Oxford (right) who came in third

An expert panel of local startup executives complimented the evening of exciting new ideas by sharing their experiences and wisdom drawn from being a little further down the Oxford innovation community pipeline. Dr Susan Graham (BioCarbon Engineering), Samuel Conway (Zegami Ltd), and Dr Tristan Collins (Metaboards) together covered a wide range of topics including each of their personal journeys into innovation and business; their most rewarding moments as an entrepreneur; advice on balancing commitments and choosing the right time to launch; and stories of what makes Oxford a perfect place to grow an idea into a business.

For more information on the Innovation Forum Leaders Conference and to see Martin representing Oxford in the IMAGINE IF! Global Final on December 4^th and 5^th click here!

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Author: Dr Tom Peach