-Maitree Patel PU II B

Design Thinking Workshop

On the 24th of June 2019, the students of PU II had a full day design thinking workshop under the guidance of Dr. Phani Kumar from CMRIT. Dr. Phani has studied Design Thinking from Harvard and aimed at delivering an approach towards learning, a collaborative effort towards developing
problem-solving skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. He put forth his teachings in a very interesting way by narrating real-life stories in order for the students to comprehend the information easily. He broke down the session into various parts, focusing on one particular strategy at a time.

This included identifying the problem, gathering information or brainstorming, generating solutions and prototyping. We were told to make a greeting card, not for our friend but for either our friend’s family or relative. This simple outlook helped us actively interact with our bench-mate enabling us to understand the person we were formulating the card for and efficiently work towards making them the perfect card. This was done by interviewing our friend for a few minutes. After which, we
were told to brainstorm ideas on how the greeting card would look and sketch out our ideas on paper. One out of the few was selected.

On getting our stationery supplies needed to make the card, we began prototyping. This simple everyday example helped us gain a deeper understanding of how problem-solving can be flexibly implemented in our day-to-day life. This also helped us understand the different challenges people experience and bring about an innovative mindset in order to tackle such difficulties.


-Keenisha Kannan, PU II A

An Introduction to Design Thinking
Design thinking is a process for creative problem-solving. It requires the user’s attention and problem-solving skills to be applied to a certain quandary to overcome the situation and give a better outcome. On 17th June, science students of PU II A had a three-hour workshop conducted
by Dr.Phani from CMRIT on design thinking. It was a very fun and interactive session filled with meaningful stories. Every human has the ability to grasp and relate more to agreeable stories, be it fiction or memoir, it has an impact on our lives.

During the workshop, we listened to many stories told by Professor which were very intriguing and catchy. Along with the stories which caught our minds we were able to create and design something on our own within a duration of time. We had to design a greeting card for our friend’s relative be it any occasion or just a casual card. This involved asking questions, thinking deeper, defining the problem statement, sketching out the design, building the solution based on the analyzed theories and finally sharing the solution and getting feedback.

Using the information we got from our partners, we had to create a simple greeting card and present it to our partners. The entire process of making a greeting card was a new and different approach to working out the problems in our lives. This session brought about a change in all our minds on the perspective on life and how we should never give up on any difficult situation in our lives. At the end of the session, each and every student was gratified with a new, broader and independent approach to life. I would say this workshop definitely was very fruitful and engaging in every way possible.

Posted by anithai

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