The iCreaTe interdisciplinary creative challenge combines the worlds of design and technology. This original module gives students of engineering (Polytech), design (École de Design Nantes Atlantique) and communication (Audencia SciencesCom) first-hand experience of collaborating to represent data sets with a variety of digital tools.
WINNER OF THE 2017 CALL FOR INNOVATIVE INITIAL EDUCATION PROJECTS
With a view to developing new, long-term pathways and courses, these modules anticipate the skills socio-economic stakeholders are going to require in the future.
Three partners
- Polytech Nantes: Computer Science cycle
- Audencia SciencesCom: Masters cycle: 2nd year pathway in Content Strategy Management
- École de Design Nantes Atlantique: Bachelor cycles: Spatial Design and Graphic Design
About the module
iCreaTe takes an interdisciplinary approach to technology. The module is open to 48 computer science students (4th year, Polytech), 50 design students (Bachelor cycle 3rd year, École de Design Nantes Atlantique) and 13 media students (2nd year Masters, dual education programme, Audencia-SciencesCom). Students will work in 16 interdisciplinary teams. Their goal will be to investigate how different technologies can be used to represent, describe, explore or explain a dataset supplied by a company, media or organisation.
Before starting the project, students from each team will be introduced to the technology they need to use. Working on their own they must then consider its potential (from a technical, design or communication viewpoint) but may only share their ideas at the launch of the first joint workshop. The this session is intended to spark original, but technically feasible ideas, as groups are expected to produce a prototype by the end of the project.
Accreditation arrangements
- Polytech: 20% of a module – 7 ECTS credits
- École de Design Nantes Atlantique: 2 ECTs Bachelor in Spatial Design and Graphic Design
- Audencia-SciencesCom: 2 ECTS credits
Prospects
The project’s partners have already worked together on interdisciplinary workshops (Hyblab). The goal of this project is to test a new, technology-focused teaching format which can be repeated long-term with the same partners or extended to other areas of expertise (e.g. materials science and marketing, etc). This trial will answer a range of questions about the organisation of such projects, for example: what is the most effective way for a limited academic team to monitor and support a large number of groups working on different technologies? How can we assess all students taking part in projects fairly when their roles may vary?
Schedule
June 2017 onwards: Preparatory meetings with the academic team from the three institutions
December 2017: Purchase materials
Early March 2018: Information for student groups about the technologies they can use
23 March 2018: Workshop to combine ideas and decide on the concept for each project
27-28-30 March 2018: Production workshops
6 April 2018: Public presentation of projects in the Mediacampus Hall, from 16:00, to showcase the 16 installations (i.e.: four installations using different technology per project leader). Award of four prizes, 19.00-19.30 (drinks reception until 20.30)
May 2018: Debrief session and begin work on organising workshops for 2018-2019
Deliverables expected
Students will showcase their finished work at a public exhibition in the Mediacampus Hall at Audencia SciencesCom. An independent panel of industry professionals from the different fields involved in the project (design, communications, data processing, technology) will assess the projects, give feedback to students and award prizes at a final Gala event.
Contacts
Matthieu Perreira Da Silva (Polytech) – matthieu.perreiradasilva@univ-nantes.fr
Toinon Vigier (Polytech) – toinon.vigier@univ-nantes.fr
Marie-Agnès Revert (L’École de design Nantes Atlantique) – ma.revert@lecolededesign.com
Jérome Heno (L’École de design Nantes Atlantique) – je.heno@lecolededesign.com
Florence Touzé (Audencia SciencesCom) – ftouze@audencia.com
Julien Pierre (Audencia SciencesCom) – julienpierre@audencia.com