IBA LAB I - Period 4 STEM in Amsterdam Program Spring 2024 Semester - Amsterdam

Design thinking will be taught so students can apply this way of working to their business idea where curiosity and asking questions are central. The first part of the course will involve an on site design thinking workshop to help an organization solve their problem. This is the practice round before the students start working on their own business to create something new with impact. This business idea should result in a concrete entity with impact on society, with funding, with a business plan and with people running the business. Asking questions like your life depends on it. The students will learn test their ideas by doing experiments and to aanalyse and report on the experimental results. Applied research and doing experiments will be part of the methods approach to this course supporting the development of the business idea. Organising like your life depends on it. Students will learn about systems thinking and intervening in a group or a system. Students will learn to make decisions and protecting the downside of their decision while focusing on the upside. Students will learn about co-creative processes and idea generation in order to build their business. Reflecting like your life depends on it. On the personal side the course will challenge students to learn to use their faculties to rapidly adapt and reflect. In this course your personal development is placed central, with you as the project leader. Through self-directed and continuous learning, you will take charge of the development you need to go through to be able to actually set up the business. Guiding you throughout will be your personal development plan that you set up at the start of this course.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.